Best Military Credit Cards 2025 | 21+ Cards for Active Duty, Spouses

83 thoughts on “Best Military Credit Cards 2025 | 21+ Cards for Active Duty, Spouses”

1. Spencer,

   I recently commissioned in the Navy but have been following you for a while. My GySgt at OCS had your book and I read it and decided to purchase my own copy to lend out to my sailors once I hit the fleet.

   I currently have 4 credit cards. A citi secured card from college (should be eligible to upgrade in a couple months), Capital One Savor, PayPal due to rewards on a one time purchase I made, and recently got the Chase Sapphire Preferred for the welcome bonus. I also decided to take advantage of the career starter loan.

   My credit score was around 700 but it dropped slightly after the loan and chase card. I am planning to buy a truck with around $20,000 of the loan, but not sure what to do with the rest to maximize the value of a 2.99% rate. Also considering which credit card to go for next. I am thinking Amex green then upgrading to platinum after a year, and then getting a gold, but also considering one of the hotel cards. I have not traveled much but my wife and kids would love to start, especially if we can take advantage of rewards. I have taken your course and Read your threads, but I’m not sure how to take advantage of 10+ cards right now so I would like to add only a few more for now until I get the hang of taking advantage of multiple. Any recommendations for next card steps?

   Reply

   • The Citi Secured card is your oldest card? I would keep that open then. I’d close the Capital One Savor and Paypal Card, they seem like a waste of space.

     Good job getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred with the increased welcome bonus offer!

     That’s a very expensive truck for a LT. Do you really want to set yourself back years just to drive a truck?

     What’s your Chase 5/24 status? It’s probably optimal to max out Chase cards before moving on to American Express. When you are ready to move on to Amex, make sure you start at the lowest annual fee card, like the Amex Green, then Amex Gold, then Amex Platinum, so you are eligible for all the welcome bonus offers on the way up.

     Getting some hotel cards might be really good for you, like the American Express Hilton Honors Aspire card, since you can get free hotel breakfasts with the wife and kids. That can be a very valuable benefit for a military family.

     The good thing is you don’t need to rush this. Because the annual fees are waived, you can take your time and add cards to your collection when it makes sense and you can easily hit the welcome bonus offer spending requirements.

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2. Whats the plan for those nearing retirement when holding all of the annual fee based cards? (i.e x8 AMEX platinums, x1 AMEX gold, x1 CSR, etc.) Is the recommended plan to close them all and take a hit to your credit score? Or does the MLA extend to retirees as well?

   Reply

   • That’s covered here: military credit cards and retirement.

     Summary:

     1. Don’t close anything until you’re actually charged the annual fee. I’m still getting 6 Amex Platinums with no annual fee 3 years after separation.
     2. Keep cards open you’re getting value from. For example, I kept my Chase Sapphire Reserve open. Happy to pay the annual fee.
     3. Downgrade accounts to lower or no annual fee versions. I downgraded my wife’s Amex Delta Reserve to a Amex Delta Blue
     4. Close the account if not getting value from the card. Example: I closed 1 of my 7 Amex Platinum cards when the fee was charged.

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3. Great post! I’m active duty navy O3. I’ve been in 6 years and only doing the 5% match thus far and just not being smart about finances, but I’m changing that. Question about order to open cards. I have a 750 credit score. I have 3 credit cards that are well beyond the 5/24. A discover it I opened in college, star card, and the Chase Amazon Prime card. If I get the chase freedom unlimited and then reserve, what other three cards do you recommend? I basically never fly so not sure I would get benefits from the southwest cards. I also just purchased your book. Thanks for all the info!

   Reply

   • Good on you for getting smart on your finances! 6 years is not too late. Credit score is fine.

     For Chase, IHG and Hyatt hotel cards are solid. Also take a look at the business credit cards. Lots of Chase Ultimate Rewards points to be earned there with welcome bonuses.

     Thanks for buying the book!

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4. Hi Spencer,

   Thank you so much for taking the time on this write-up! I’m soon to be active duty as a Naval Officer Candidate while in university and just want to confirm what the best course of action would be to begin to build my credit card portfolio this early into my professional career.

   My current credit cards are:
   Captial One Savor (5/2024) – $2500
   Amex Blue Cash Everyday (1/2025) – $1000

   Given my credit score is in the low 700s, how much time would you recommend I spend between contacting my current lenders to update them on my salary (~$12,000 -> ~$70,000) to get a CLI before I apply for my first Chase card?

   Sounds like the best path for me would be getting the CFU to build a relationship with Chase before getting the CSR a few months later?

   After that I was looking at the United Club and SW Rapid Rewards Priority cards to round out my Chase portfolio given the 5/24 rule.

   Looking toward Amex, do you still recommend going green -> gold -> plat? Would you recommend I upgrade both of the lower tiered cards to plat once the year surpasses and the option becomes available? Also, how soon should I request to upgrade from BCE to BCP? In retrospect I should’ve started with the BCP given the first year no AF but I wasn’t certain I would be committing to the program I’m now going into.

   Lastly, if I do only serve for my 5 year service commitment upon my college graduation (2 years from now), will cancelling some of the high AF cards hurt my credit score if I don’t see myself spending enough to justify the thousands of dollars of fees upon separating?

   Thank you so much and sorry for all the questions, just trying to figure out the credit card landscape without much experience!

   Reply

   • I do not recommend getting a credit line increase on your current cards. Chase is very strict about how much credit they will lend you, so you don’t want to over extend yourself.

     Yes, get a Chase Freedom Unlimited or Flex now before going to CSR soon after commissioning.

     The airline cards are junk compared to others, recommend you go for Chase Hotel cards like Marriott, IHG, and Hyatt before United and Southwest. Circle back to airline cards when you’ve maxed everything else out.

     Yes, look at latest Amex family language rules. Start with Green, then Gold, then Platinum. Recommend you upgrade both cards and then reapply for another Green and Gold so you can earn the 4x points on restaurants and groceries with Gold. Don’t upgrade the BCE, just direct apply for a BCP.

     Temporary 60-100 point drop on credit score if closing dozens of cards, your score will recover in a few months. Doesn’t matter in the long run, just be careful if borrowing to buy a car or house around that time. Don’t close your oldest account and pay your bills on time, that’s really all that matters for a good score. Here’s the credit card military separation strategy.

     1. Don’t close anything until you’re actually charged annual fee
     2. Keep cards open you’re getting value from
     3. Downgrade accounts to lower or no annual fee versions
     4. Close the account if not getting value from the card

     Good luck, enjoy the journey!

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5. Hi! Thank you so much. I am a little confused with all this. I just enlisted, so I have plenty of time. Currently, I have only Capital 1 venture X card, ironically I paid for it prior to enlisting so I’m good there. I understand its perks and I get 400$ in credit annually with a waiver fee since I am a prior cardholder and now enlisted.

   As for Amex and Chase, I don’t really understand how to utilize the travel credit. For example: I get 300$ for Amex, and my wife gets a card too. So we get 600$ annually. However, we can only spend them in increments of 300$ since they are separate accounts, correct? This is similar with all the other cards? Or is there a stackable way to add all points/credits into one pot that I’m missing? Thanks so much for your help!

   Reply

   • Hey Tyler, good move on getting the Capital One Venture X Card before enlisting. That’s the only card you need to open prior to active duty to get the fee waivers.

     I’m not sure what $300 travel credit you’re referring to for the Amex.

     For the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you’ll receive an annual $300 travel credit. If your wife also has a CSR, she’ll get a $300 annual travel credit too. It’s a very easy credit to use. For example, if you’re buying a $400 plane ticket each, you could put one $400 charge on your CSR and one $400 charge on her card. You’ll both get the $300 travel credit, so you’ll only pay $100 out of pocket.

     For The Platinum Card from American Express, let’s talk about a few of the credits. The $200 airline fee credit you can use to buy United TravelBank, so that can stack between accounts. The $200 Uber credit, you can load all your Amex Platinum cards into one Uber account and those benefits will stack. For the $200 Fine Hotels and Resort (FHR) credit, you can book one night on your card in your name and the next night in your wife’s name on her card. You’ll each get a $200 FHR credit on your account. When you get to the hotel, you can explain you booked 2 separate nights and they may be able to combine the reservation so you don’t have to switch rooms. Or worst case, you switch rooms.

     For the Amex Hilton Honors Aspire Card, let’s say you have 2 cards and your wife has 1 card. So you have 3 Amex Hilton Honors Aspire cards between you. If you stayed at the Grand Wailea Resort on Maui for 3 nights, using 3 Free Night Certificates, and you charged $750 worth of stuff to your room, when you go to check out, you can split the payment over 3 cards. It’s a little awkward, but the staff has usually seen it before, because people have multiple Amex Hilton Honors Aspire cards with the credits.

     Please let me know if that answers your question!

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     • Thanks! That does answer my question. So For the CSR card, we would use the 300$ credit on each card as a separate transaction, but for Amex we can utilize the United TravelBank? I guess my question is, is there anyway to utilize a common third party for AMEX, Chase, etc such as TravelBank? or is piecing the travel via cards the only way to go? Thanks so much for your help!

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       • United TravelBank should trigger the CSR $300 credit, so you could consolidate there if you are keen on consolidation. Most people I know just kind of piece it together as they go along. But, for example, I had 8 Amex Platinum cards (8x $200 airline credit) and 3 Hilton Honors Aspire cards (3x $250 airline credit) that I used to consolidate in United Travelbank.

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         • Amazing! Thank you!

           I plan to do 4 and out for my AD time.. would closing all these cards truly hurt my credit? I have had credit cards for
           About 8-10 years. Thanks again

           Reply

           • No, closing or downgrading all these cards when you ETS will not impact your credit card score much.

6. THANKS FOR ALL THE INFORMATION.

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   • Welcome :)

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7. Hey Spencer, I’m new to your website, but man it is EXTREMELY useful. Unfortunately my attention to detail isn’t the best, and I have opened up several AMEX credit cards today but didn’t do the Chase cards first. As a result I was able to get the Chase Sapphire Reserved, but no other cards in addition (like the freedom flex ones).

   Should I stop getting cards and wait out the 5/24, or should I start accumulating more AMEX platinums? I feel as though the opportunity cost of waiting it out is not worth it, and here’s why:

   I currently already have:
   1 Navy federal Credit Union card (~2017)?
   1 AMEX platinum (~2018)
   1 AMEX gold (~2018, and just called to upgrade it today)
   1 AMEX blue cash preferred (~2019)
   1 AMEX charles schwab platinum (2021)
   1 Amazon Prime Visa (through Chase) (2021)
   1 CITI business travel card for gov’t travel (2022)

   And today I was a little trigger happy and I got:
   1 AMEX platinum
   upgraded the AMEX gold
   1 AMEX Delta platinum (just for the sign-on bonus)
   1 Chase Sapphire Reserve

   And I applied for the AMEX green (before I read about the Chase 5/24 rule) a couple times (both in normal browser and incognito) but it looks like I’m not eligible for the welcome offer so I didn’t accept. Good thing I didn’t pull the trigger anyway and prevent me from getting the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

   So as irritated and FOMO I feel about not being able to get the Chase Sapphire Freedom flex/unlimited, the downsides are:

   1) that I may not get the % back on every little thing

   However, (the combination of cards I already have get me more than 1% back on almost everything) and ,

   2) my credit age could be in jeopardy, when I eventually retire from active duty and be forced to close down some of the cards with the annual fees.

   However, I think my credit age will be relatively safe with the Navy Federal Credit union card and the Amazon prime card, both of which have no annual fee so I’m intending to keep them forever.

   In my mind, I think the right call is to keep growing my AMEX platinum collection, especially by opening the green and another gold to start the timer on the 1 year upgrade time.

   What are your thoughts? Any advice will be very much appreciated!

   And thanks again for putting such a comprehensive guide to military finance here. You’ll probably see me ask more questions as I lurk around, especially irt the FIRE component. I’m an O-3 in the Coast guard, 4 years in with 1 year left to pay off the academy obligation. Intend to stay the full 20. Currently trying to wrap my head around if I should contribute to roth vs traditional IRA/TSPs. Since traditional is almost a no-brainer for most FIRE people, but in the military, our tax bracket is already low while we are active duty with the nontaxble income, and upon retirement, the 40% base pay pension after 20 years will bump the tax bracket up and thus the roth ladder won’t work as well as it does for most FIRE people.

   Reply

   • 2 – I wouldn’t worry too much about your credit age or credit score. Here’s what I planned to do with my credit cards when I leave the military.

     I agree you should keep growing the Amex Platinum collection.

     As an O-3, the answer is usually Roth IRA and Roth TSP. Switch to Traditional as a high year O-4 or O-5, but do the math to see if it makes sense. Either way, it’s taxes now or taxes later, so don’t sweat the Roth vs Traditional debate too much, just max out the accounts either way.

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8. Spencer — Thanks for this. I just started this routine and have had a pre-existing (“vanilla”) Platinum AMEX since 2019. Today I applied for the AMEX Gold and put it under a separate account log-in since the advice about upgrading the Gold after 1 year. I went to add AMEX offers to this new card and it came back with “Sorry about that. The offer you selected has already been added to one of your Cards.” The only could it could be referring to is the vanilla platinum on the other log-in. So we aren’t able to double-dip benefits from one Amex to the other? That seems like the central theme of your recommendations so I just wanted to check on what I might be doing wrong so I start off on the right foot.

   Thanks!

   Reply

   • Amex Offers don’t stack. Amex keeps track across all your accounts with your Social Security number. However, other benefits that are per account do stack, like the hotel, airline, and Saks credit for example.

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9. Hello,

   I was wondering if I could get any advice on the next card to open up.

   Current Cards:
   AMEX Platinum
   AMEX Gold (>1 year opened)
   CSR
   WoH
   3 other no-annual fee cards (USAA and Discover)

   I’m in AMEX pop-up jail (>7 months) for the AMEX green card, and have been waiting until I get approved for that with the increased welcome offer before I upgrade my gold card. However, I have also considered getting another Chase card while I’m still under the 5/24 rule. What do you recommend? Opening up a CF card and upgrade to a CSR after a year, open a different Chase card, or continue waiting to leave AMEX pop-up jail. Thanks for any insight!

   Reply

   • Open a Chase Freedom Flex or Chase Freedom Unlimited (or both cards) and then upgrade to a CSR after 1 year. IHG card is good too for free nights, but maybe wait for a limited time offer. I’d upgrade Amex Gold to Platinum now (unless you are waiting for welcome offer) and then apply for another Amex Gold (no welcome offer will be available, but you can still earn 4x points on eligible categories).

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     • The only worry I have is that I get in bad favor with Chase for having 2 CSRs just because it seems like you can only have 1 of these cards based off the other websites out there. Do you have any data points of Chase closing an account because of this?

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       • I have many data points of military servicemembers with multiple CSRs. No data points of Chase closing an account because of this.

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         • Thanks Spencer! I’ll apply for the Chase Freedom Flex. Just a heads up, the link to the card on your page goes to an error page.

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10. So I read the “optimal order to apply for credit cards if you are in the military:”
    And I want to make sure I’m reading this right, but if you can only have 5 American express cards, How would someone be able to get the Marriott or Delta or Hilton cards on top of the AMEX platinum, gold or green cards?
    The list shows multiple AMEX cards;
    Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American express card
    AMEX green card
    Amex Gold
    Amex Platinum
    Delta Reserve American express card
    Delta Platinum American express card
    Delta Gold American express card
    American express Hilton Honors card
    Hilton Honors American express Aspire Card
    Hilton Honors American express Surpass card
    I want to understand what I can and can’t use for future reference, any help/ explanation would be great, thanks.

    Reply

    • The limit is 5 Amex credit cards and 10 Amex charge cards, also known as “Pay Over Time” cards. The Amex Platinum, Amex Gold, and Amex Green count as charge cards. You can have up to 10 of this type.

      The Amex credit cards are three co-branded cards, such as Hilton, Marriott, and Delta. You can have up to 5 of these cards. A good mix might be 3 Hilton Aspires and 2 Marriott Bonvoy Brilliants.

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      • Spencer,

        Just wanted to provide a data point here. I know Amex has gone back and forth between allowing 4 and 5 credit cards per person, and I think they have dipped back down to four. Outside of the charge cards I have a Bonvoy Business, Blue Business Plus, Hilton Aspire, and Hilton Surpass and just last week was denied a Hilton Honors because I had reached my max number of credit cards. Not trying to tell people not to give it a shot, but just don’t save your most desired card for #5.

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11. Hey Spencer,

    I recently started my active duty service and I got the Amex Platinum card recently and was going to apply for Amex Gold soon for the bonus. However, I do spend a decent amount of $ on gas each month because I do a lot of driving and was wondering what card you would suggest for gas purchases.
    I know my credit card is out of order from this list but not sure how deep I want to get into the credit card game just yet. Do you think this is a good start or should I go a different route for my next card(s)?

    Reply

    • Congrats on the Amex Platinum and thinking about the Amex Gold soon. I wouldn’t worry so much about maximizing a “spending category” like “gas” until you’ve opened up a few more cards. The cash back or travel rewards value of a welcome bonus can be 20% or 30% of the spending. For example, you open a Chase Sapphire Reserve Card, spend $4000 on travel (3x points on travel) and earn 12,000 points + the 60,000 point welcome bonus.

      Now you have 72,000 points and only spent $4000. You can cash out those 72,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points for $720 cash, which is 18% cash back!

      Or you can use the points for travel in the Chase Travel Portal for 1.5 cents each, so now your points are worth $720 * 1.5 = $1080. Again, you only spent $4000. The “cash back value” of your spending is 27% if you redeem through the Chase Travel Portal.

      Finally, you can transfer your Ultimate Rewards Points to a Chase Ultimate Rewards travel partner like Hyatt and redeem the points for 3 cents of value. Now your 72,000 points are worth $2160. And you still only spent $4000 to earn the welcome bonus. 2160 / 4000 = 54% cash back value! Holy cow.

      It’s much more efficient to focus on earning welcome bonuses than to mess around with spending rewards categories. Once you’ve opened 10 or 20 cards, sure, you can optimize your gas spending on your Chase Freedom Flex 5% cash back category. But while you still have cards to open, I recommend focusing on welcome bonuses, not spending categories.

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12. Hi Spencer,
    I notice that you recommend the Chase Sapphire Reserve OR the Chase Sapphire Preferred. I realize that this guide starts from zero, but it is probably worth mentioning the Modified Double Dip for those with more established credit. Getting the sign-up bonus for both the Reserve and Preferred is an amazing start to earning points. The MDD also works to bypass 5/24, so people could get CSR, CSP, World of Hyatt, IHG Premier, AND 2 more cards from Chase before moving on. If people play it conservatively for the start of their credit card journey, they could easily get the Marriott Boundless, upgrade to the Ritz Carlton card after a year, and finish the 24-month Marriott cooldown before grabbing the Marriott Brilliant.

    Despite having been in the military for 20 years and started churning credit cards recently, I’ve still gotten a lot out of reading through your blogs and articles. Thank you for putting this all together.

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    • Great tip, thanks for sharing. A bit advanced for most people, but if you’re reading this site, it might be for you. Thanks for the kind words on the site. It’s been fun keeping it going for over a decade.

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13. I love this site and your podcast. I was wondering, now that you’ve left or are leaving active duty, which cards do you intend on keeping that have annual fees?

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    • Great question! I answered the question in my which credit cards to keep after active duty post but I will record a podcast soon to go into more detail.

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      • Thanks, I should have been more precise. I’m totally tracking that you have to look at the value you get from each card. I meant, what cards would you personally choose to keep, now that you’re no longer on active duty and will at some point have to pay the fees. Like if you had to pay the fees now, just curious which ones you find to be the most valuable and which justify the fee. Similar to what Jake Broe did on Youtube.

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        • Like I said in the article, I’m going to wait to see which cards I get charged an annual fee on. Until Chase or Amex let me know they are going to charge an annual fee, I’ll keep the card open. If both Chase and Amex drop the hammer immediately and start charging annual fees, then here’s my plan:

          From Chase: Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Freedom Flex, Chase Freedom Unlimited, Chase IHG Premier, Chase World of Hyatt

          From Amex: Amex Platinum, Amex Gold, Amex Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, Amex Hilton Honors Aspire

          From Capital One and Citi: Capital One Venture X, Citi Premier

          This way I’ll cover all my flexible points currencies: Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, and Citi ThankYou Points

          And I’ll get an annual free night at Hilton, Marriott, IHG, and Hyatt with the 4 best hotel credit cards.

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14. I noticed your last 7 cards are American Express. I was tracking that they allow a max of 5 credit cards. Are some of those exempt from the count?

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    • Yes it’s usually 5 credit cards max but there are reports of people going over that limit. Personally if I was limited to 5 Amex credit cards mine would be 3 Amex Hilton Aspire, a Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, and a Delta Reserve card.

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      • Once you have upgraded the Surpass or base Hilton to an Aspire, could you get another (and potentially upgrade to eventually get 5 Aspires)?

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        • Yes.

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15. Hello!

    Big fan of this site – it’s really helpful!

    My husband and I each have the Amex Platinum and Amex Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant. Today we each tried to apply for another Amex (the Hilton Aspire) and a pop-up came up saying that we were not eligible for the welcome offer because of our credit history with American Express. Our balances are paid and we still do “use” the cards to keep them active.

    Do you know if there’s a certain waiting period that Amex requires before you’re eligible for another welcome bonus?

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    • Sounds like you got the dreaded Amex Pop Up. Best case scenario just wait a few weeks or months or try some Chase cards in the meantime. You can also check the latest Amex application rules. I’ve been in the pop up jail before but you can escape, there is hope!

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      • Were you able to get the sign up bonuses for all the cards you have? Or, because of the Amex Pop Up, did you forgo the sign-up bonus to just get some of the cards for the benefits?

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16. What happens when you get out of the military? Are the fees still waived, do you get locked in? I am a Marine reservist, did a year active so I have a DD214. Any clue about whether I’d qualify to waive these fees?

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    • Hey Mike, good question. Check out my post on what to do with your credit cards when you leave the military.

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17. Should I get the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card or the AMEX Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant credit card? Reading through the fine print for the bonus offers, it appears you cannot get the bonus offer for the one card if you have already gotten the bonus offer for the other. Should I prioritize one over the other? The Chase card appears to have a better bonus offer, but the AMEX has better overall features afterwards. Is there any issue in holding both the cards? Thanks!

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    • Check out my article on Marriott military credit cards for all the details. The Amex Marriott Bonvoy brilliant is definitely the superior card for Marriott. I recommend getting that one even if the bonus is lower than the Chase because of the Amex’s annual recurring benefits.

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18. Have you explored something similar for military members stationed in Europe? I would imagine you can still squeeze the same benefits out of the hotel travel cards. But what’s the best strategy for taking advantage of air travel benefits to/from the UK or Germany?

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    • Same strategy and same cards will work for Europe stationed servicemembers. I used this plan when I was stationed in the Middle East for 2 years and flew to Europe often. Stayed in many nice hotels around Europe for free, some favorites are Hilton Carlton Edinburgh, Ritz Carlton Geneva, and Hilton Garden Inn Bucharest Romania.

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      • If we’re about to be stationed in Europe, wouldn’t make much sense to get the Southwest card, right? Which card provides the most airline travel benefits while travelling to/from Europe?

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19. I recently came across this site and wanted to say thanks for all the info and recommendations!

    I do have one question regarding building out the AMEX portfolio. For a single active duty servicemember, how much time do you recommend allowing to pass before opening up the next card? Obviously, one would want to ensure they have met the spending requirements to achieve the sign-up bonus on their most recently opened account. If they are able to do that rather quickly (e.g., 1-2 months), then what is the minimum recommended wait before applying for their next AMEX card?

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    • Check out the Amex card application rules here. You can open up to 2 cards every 90 days and 1 card every 5 days. If you can handle the minimum spends, opening 2 cards a week apart, waiting 100 days (just up be sure) from the second card and then opening 2 more a week apart should be an aggressive pace.

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20. You should “prefer” the Sapphire Preferred over the Reserve given the new 80,000 point bonus. If the user’s transferring points or waiting until the second year when they upgrade it to a Reserve, it’s a better deal.

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    • Yes agreed, updating my posts today to reflect the new CSP 80k offer.

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21. AMEX only allows for 5 credit card slots. How then can we follow the recommended order you have given. There are 8 AMEX credit card slots listed. Is this where you would open an account and then close it in order to get the bonus and then apply for another card?

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    • Yes, then you have to choose your 5 cards to hold forever. For me, I like 3 Hilton Aspires and 2 Bonvoy Brilliants. Or 3 Aspires, 1 Brilliant, and 1 Delta Reserve.

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      • Thanks for clarifying. I have one of my Five card slots left. Do you have any recommendations as far as when to close one card and open another? I don’t want to raise any suspicion with AMEX. I also want to solidify my final slot after I max out the points on the cars that I don’t want to keep asap. I am going for the 3 Aspires, 1 Bonvoy, 1 Delta reserve you recommended. Currently I have one aspire, one surpass (Upgrading), one Delta reserve and one Bonvoy.

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22. Hi Spencer. Love your website. There is one thing that I am a little confused about. According to your optimal order of applying for credit cards you have seven American Express credit card slots occupied( Delta reserve, Delta platinum, delta gold, Hilton Aspire, Hilton surpass, Hilton honors, Bonvoy brilliant). This does not Include getting a second bonvoy card as you have recommended for the five CREDIT card slots before. So really there are nine that seem to be getting recommended. It doesn’t seem possible. Also, for your second bonvoy credit card slot as part of your five credit card American Express slots, how are you getting this? From the business card? If so it is less rewarding than the non-business bonvoy and I would think getting the third Hilton honors card and upgrading it to an aspire would be more valuable In filling your five credit card maximum from American Express. Thank you for your time.

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    • Pardon. Meant to say 8 not 9

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23. is the recommendation base on a two player mode? i dont see a need for both me and my wife to get the chase freedom and freedom unlimited

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24. You may want to add the US Bank Altitude Reserve near the top of the list. They’re sensitive to new lines of credit (generally denied above 2/12), but waive the annual fee for military and offer a $325 annual travel credit and other perks fairly comparable to the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

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    • Nice tip, I am writing an article on that very subject now.

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25. If I already have established credit and only have a couple of bank CC, do you recommend CSR or AMEX Plat first? I have heard that chase is a little more particular in their approvals, so I should start there. Thoughts? Thanks for all the data!!

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    • I would recommend you get Chase first due to their 5/24: CSR, Hyatt of the world (free annual night), IHG (annual night), United Club Mileage Plus (for their lounge), & Southwest Rapid reward.

      Then I would go after AMEX Plat, Gold (4x grocery, rest.)*, Marriott Bonvoy (annual night), Hilton Aspire(annual night)

      and Citi Bank Prestige ($250 travel cred by calendar yr) and yes annual fee is waived. Sent your LES to their military department and eventually, you’ll get a letter.

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26. Question for you. Where to go from here?

    I have (all the cards are over a year old):

    Amex: Plat, Gold, Blue Cash Preferred, Bonvoy, Delta Reserve, Delta Platinum
    Chase: Free, Free Unlimited, Ritz, and Amazon

    Next steps
    1) Have an email offer to upgrade my Bonvoy to a Bonvoy Brilliant, might as well.
    2) I can get back in on the CSR in January so I plan to do that.
    3) Not sure what else, maybe to go after the Hilton Honors card or Citi prestige, citi aadvantage, or united club.
    4) Don’t know if I follow the Delta platinum to Delta reserve upgrade, but already get the second com pass with the plat.
    5) Like using the Amex gold for restaurants so I don’t know if I want to upgrade it

    My wife isnt military and only has one wells fargo card :/

    Primary purchases (hope I’m doing this right):

    Gas: Blue cash preferred
    Groceries: Blue cash preferred
    Restaurants: Amex Gold
    Amazon: Amazon card
    Travel: depends (Amex Platimum or Delta cards depending)
    Other: Chase Freedom Unlimited or Chase Freedom depending on the quarter

    Reply

27. Your plan lines up with the strategy I had in mind, however my research has showed you can only ba e 5 amex credit cards (not including charge cards). So I’m curious to know how you have 3 hilton cards, 3 delta, and the Marriott card since that’s 7 cards. Did you close some to stay at 5? Thanks!

    Reply

    • Counting my and my wife’s cards. I have 3 Hilton + 2 Marriott. She has Delta. Working on more for her :)

      Reply

28. You may want to mention that IHG and Hyatt cards can generally be opened by those who have more than 5/24 (unless that’s changed very recently), so a user may benefit from other Chase cards in their first five.

    Reply

    • David – 2019 data points show that IHG and Hyatt do now fall under Chase’s 5/24 rule. I was even rejected for a Chase Amazon Prime Rewards card because I had opened too many accounts in the last 2 years. :(

      Reply

29. Spencer,
    I’m pretty well versed in all of this material, but I’ve never been able to get Citi to waive my Prestige fee. Can you please explain how to do this.

    Reply

    • I don’t have direct experience with this yet, I just opened a Citi Premier last week. My understanding is you can send a copy of your orders or LES to MILITARYORDERS@CITI.COM

      Please report back any data points you have to share with the rest of the community!

      Reply

      • Spencer,

        Were you able to get Citi to waive the annual fee? I’ve maxed out what I can with AMEX & Chase, and am looking at other CC providers. I called both Citi and Capital One and inquired about waived annual fees. Both companies said that the fees would only be waived if I had applied for the card PRIOR to going on active duty.

        Reply

        • Yes, MLA fee credit of $95 applied to Citi Premier card within a month of opening account and applying for MLA benefits.

          Reply

      • Confirmed. My Presitge which I opened Oct 2019 annual fee was waived. Just follow the instructions above and you should get a letter in about a month.

        Reply

30. Does Air Force reserve get the annual fee waived as well? How about reserve called for deployment?

    Reply

    • Yes, with 30+ days active duty orders or deployment orders greater than 30 days Reservists can get their annual fees waived. Just apply for the card here before deployment or activation and provide a PDF copy of your orders to AMEX here.

      Reply

31. Does citi wave their fees too

    Reply

    • Yes, Citi Prestige is waiving annual fees for military under MLA.

      Reply

32. That’s great info Spencer, thank you! If you are the primary finance person in the family, do you just have the log ins for the CC’s on which your wife is the primary acct holder so you can track the activity? Do you ever close out the cards whose benefits you have received and which you are no longer using? I know you don’t really do the dollar tracking budget (based on past post), how do you track the family expenditures…monthly? weekly? Sorry for all the questions…taking notes and trying to streamline the process!

    Interesting to note- Just recently found out that if a military member OR spouse applies for AMEX Plat or Chase Reserve, is accepted and then adds the spouse as the secondary user, the secondary user can no longer apply for the benefits of the card AND it counts against their 5/24 rule count. It may be better for each partner to apply seperately, each be the primary user, to get the full benefits. May need to stagger the applications for spending goal purposes.

    Reply

    • Thanks for the questions!

      1. Yes, as the primary finance person in the family we share our log in details. She allows me to login to her accounts to make payments and keep track of the cards.

      2. Yes, I close cards frequently if I am no longer receiving the benefits from the cards. Especially if the card charges an annual fee. Thankfully, because annual fees on most Chase and all AMEX cards are waived for US military, I don’t have many cards that charge an annual fee.

      3. I don’t really track family expenditures any more. We spend money on what’s important to us (food, travel) and don’t spend it on things we get little pleasure from (gadgets, alcohol, cable, cars). Budgeting is an annoying chore to me.

      We invest 50% of my military paycheck. We save >95% of my wife’s paycheck. I consider that a 90% solution for 10% of the effort (Pareto’s principle). Could we eek out a little more savings? Probably, but why? We have no debt, we will be financially independent in a few years, and we enjoy our life. We save the dollars so we don’t have to count the pennies. At this point saving $100-200/month is not going to make us FI that much quicker. And at what cost to time, effort, and stress?

      Our budget is pretty stable at this point. We pay ourselves a “marriage premium.” Like an insurance premium that you pay to the insurance company. This is money we can spend on whatever we want without the other partner questioning it. Mine usual goes into my hobbies (cycling, gaming, fitness). My wife usually saves her premium and buys her friend’s flights so she can holiday with them.

      Joint expenses like food, restaurants, going out to eat, gas for the car just come out of the joint money. We discuss what we consider a joint expense and what it considered a marriage premium expense. If we can’t agree, which is rare, we pay out of our marriage premium.

      Our marriage premium when I was a young lieutenant not making that much was $50/month each. Now it’s grown to $500/month each. We set aside money every month for the recurring expenses (cell phone plan, internet, house cleaner, Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, renters and car insurance) and then allow ourselves to spend whatever is left in the checking account.

      Once a week I pay off the credit cards. If we ever dip into a savings account, for instance if we have a large airfare purchase coming up, I make a note of it so we pay ourselves back. Usually expenses are high in one month and low in the next. It all seems to work out in the end.

      4. I don’t think your statement is true, but I’d be happy to be proven wrong. As far as I know, authorized users CAN open new accounts with their own Social Security number (SSN) and receive the welcome bonus. I have done it many times myself and recently. However, you are correct that being added as an authorized user CAN count against your Chase 5/24 rule, so be careful with that.

      Reply

33. Great and useful post. I did have two questions: 1. Do you feel like with more cards open and available, there is more chance for fraudulent activity and identity theft? 2. How do you keep track/use/store all of these cards? How do you track the spending/payment activities on so many? We have the USAA Limitless, Chase Reserve, AMX Plat, Amazon and I feel like I’m already at capacity tracking spending/payment on just those four. Thank you!

    Reply

    • 1. No. Fraud prevention is really quite good these days and all of my cards have zero liability for fraudulent charges. If a card is ever stolen or compromised, I simply phone the company, dispute the charge, and order a new card to be delivered. It’s happened a few times in the last 10 years and is always resolved within 20 minutes on the phone. New cards are delivered in 2-7 days depending on whether the company expedites the card.

      2. I have a credit card holder book to physically hold my cards. $15 on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2SlbFgf I track the spending requirements in a spreadsheet I built myself. The column headings are “Spending Required…Open or Closed…Bank Issuer (AMEX, Chase, etc)…Card Name…Primary User (me or my wife)…Minimum Spend…Total Spent…Spend Remaining…Date Opened…Date to Meet Minimum…Annual Fee…Date to Close Account…Bonus…Reward Program

      Reply

34. Chase waives annual fees for AD military!

    Reply

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