Some of us go to great lengths to maximize our credit card rewards, in some cases with dozens of cards in some cases, and basically make the pursuit of rewards points a part-time job.
If you are the person in your circle of friends who are known for your credit card obsession, chances are that others will frequently ask you which credit card to use. I know I am And it’s a fight. My temptation is to tweak their strategy by giving them a handful of cards to maximize each spending category, but then I find that people quickly lose interest. You want a simple strategy that is easy to follow.
With that in mind, in this post I wanted to share some simple credit card duos that can help you maximize your spending, whether you’re looking for personal or business credit cards.
What are the best credit card duos?
In this post, I wanted to share with you what I think are the top five credit card duos to maximize the rewards:
With that in mind, here are my three preferred personal credit card duos and my three preferred business credit card duos in no particular order:
Chase Sapphire Reserve & Chase Freedom Unlimited – the best combination of personal Chase cards
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® card (check and Chase Freedom Unlimited® (Rating) are a pretty unbeatable combo in the Chase Ultimate Rewards ecosystem that is a popular point currency among consumers:
- Annual fees – The Chase Sapphire Preferred has an annual fee of $ 95 while the Chase Freedom Unlimited has no annual fee
- Earn points – The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers 2x points for restaurants and travel, while the Chase Freedom Unlimited offers 5x points for travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 3x points for restaurants and drugstores and 1.5x points for all other purchases
- Redemption of points – Transfer points to one of the Chase Ultimate Rewards airlines or hotel partners or redeem them for 1.25 cents each for travel purchases or for everyday expenses via “Pay Yourself Back”.
- What distinguishes this combination of cards? – The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers fantastic travel coverage including cancellation insurance, car rental and more, and the Chase Ultimate Rewards ecosystem is arguably the easiest for the average consumer to maximize too
Transfer Chase Points to Hyatt for hotel stays
Citi Premier & Citi Double Cash – the best Citi combination for personal cards
The Citi Premier® map (check and Citi® Double Cash Card (Review) offer the highest average return in terms of number of points on a mid-range card combination:
- Annual fees – The Citi Premier has an annual fee of $ 95 while the Citi Double Cash has no annual fee
- Earn points – The Citi Premier offers 3x points for gasoline, groceries, restaurants, air travel and hotels, while the Citi Double Cash offers up to 2x points for all other purchases
- Redemption of points – Transfer points to one of the partners of the Citi ThankYou airline or redeem them for 1.0 cents each for travel purchases
- Other valuable benefits – There is no other mid-range card combination that earns you so many points for every dollar spent in so many categories
Transfer Citi points to Emirates for world class travel
Amex Gold & Amex EveryDay – the best combination of personal Amex cards
The American Express® Gold Card (check and Amex EveryDay credit card (Rating) are a great combination to collect Amex Membership Rewards points:
- Annual fees – There is an annual fee of USD 250 (prices and fees) for the Amex Gold, no annual fee for the Amex EveryDay
- Earn points – The Amex Gold offers 4x points in restaurants worldwide, 4x points in US supermarkets (when spending up to 25,000 USD per year) and 3x points for airfares bought directly from airlines, while the Amex EveryDay offers a bonus of 20% Points offers 20 transactions per billing cycle, which means you can earn up to 1.2x points for daily expenses
- Redemption of points – Transfer points to one of the Amex Membership Rewards airlines or hotel partners or redeem them for 1.0 cent each for travel purchases
- Other valuable benefits – While the $ 250 annual fee for Amex Gold may seem high at first, the card offers valuable benefits and credits that could help offset it significantly
Transfer Amex points to Virgin Atlantic for business class travel
Chase Ink Preferred & Chase Ink Unlimited – best Chase business card combination
The Ink Business Preferred® credit card (check and Ink Business Unlimited® credit card (Review) are arguably an even better combination than what Chase’s personal cards offer:
- Annual fees – Chase Ink Preferred has an annual fee of $ 95 and Chase Ink Unlimited has no annual fee
- Earn points – The Chase Ink Preferred offers 3x points for travel, mail order, internet, cable, and phone services, and advertising purchases made on select social media sites and search engines (up to $ 150,000 for their anniversary year) during the Chase Ink Unlimited offers 1.5x points for all other purchases
- Redemption of points – Transfer points to one of the Chase Ultimate Rewards airlines or hotel partners or redeem them for 1.25 cents each for travel purchases or for everyday expenses via “Pay Yourself Back”.
- What distinguishes this combination of cards? – The Chase Ink Preferred is the best-rounded business card on the market, and both cards offer phenomenal welcome bonuses too
Redeem Chase Points for travel in Qatar Airways Qsuites
Amex Business Gold and Amex Blue Business Plus – the best combination of Amex business cards
The American Express® Business Gold Card (check and The Blue Business® Plus credit card from American Express (Review) Combine Some Valuable Bonus Categories With The Best Business Card For Daily Spending:
- Annual fees – The Amex Business Gold has an annual fee of USD 295 (prices and fees) while the Amex Blue Business Plus has no annual fee (prices and fees).
- Earn points – The Amex Business Gold offers 4x points in the two categories that you spend the most in each billing cycle for the following time, for combined purchases of up to USD 150,000 per year – Airfares purchased directly from airlines, US purchases for advertising in select media, US gas station purchases, US restaurant purchases, US shipping purchases, US computer hardware, software, and cloud computing purchases direct from select vendors; The Amex Blue Business Plus offers 2x points for the first $ 50,000 spent each year
- Redemption of points – Transfer points to one of the airlines or hotel partners of Amex Membership Rewards or redeem them for up to 1.33 cents per flight thanks to the up to 25% refund from Amex Business Gold on deposits made with “Pay With Points”
- Other valuable benefits – The Amex Blue Business Plus can be a valuable card, regardless of which other card you have connected to it, and the Amex Business Gold currently also offers a particularly good welcome bonus
Transfer Amex points to Etihad for first class travel
Bottom line
In general, you can get a much better return on your credit card spending if you are willing to receive two credit cards instead of just one. By no means am I suggesting that the above strategies are the only good strategies for maximizing points, but that it is one of the simplest and most economical strategies for maximizing your credit card rewards.
In some cases, getting a combination of personal and business credit cards can be of great value to really maximize your rewards, but again, simplicity is all about. For example, it might be valuable to many people to get this Chase Sapphire Reserve® (Review) in place of the Sapphire Reserve as I would argue The Blue Business® Plus credit card from American Express is a phenomenal addition to almost any other card.
I’m curious what you guys think – what do you think is the best credit card duo out there?
The following links will take you to the prices and fees for the American Express cards mentioned. These include: American Express® Business Gold Card (prices and fees), American Express® Gold Card (prices and fees), and American Express’s Blue Business® Plus credit card (prices and fees).
