My Ideal Wallet Q3 2015

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Credit Sesame, Discover

These are the Credit and Debit cards that will either be in my wallet from July 1st until the end of September 2015


Make sure to sign up for Credit Sesame and/or Credit Karma to monitor any changes in your credit history for free (I have both).

• American Express Blue Preferred – 6% cash-back at groceries (up to 6k a year), 3% at gas and 1% everywhere else. There is a $75 annual fee so it is only for those who spend a lot of money on groceries or for those who have a close Supermarket that sells $500 Visa Gift Cards.
• $150 sign up bonus for spending $1,000 in the first 3 months
• You earn 6% on gift cards you buy at the grocery store as well.

• Discover it® - 5% cash-back on Amazon.com, Department Stores and Home Improvement Stores. Discover Doubles your rewards for a year so 5% becomes 10%! This is the new it card (see what I did there ;)
• 5% cashback for Discover is actually more than 5%.  I use them for Staples or Bed, Bath and Beyond Gift cards.  $20 in rewards is a $25 gift card.
• Must be activated before purchase to qualify for cashback bonus
• $50 sign up bonus via my referral link (or anyone else's).  $50 becomes $100 after 13 months.  Refer your spouse/friends/family members to earn $100 yourself for every referral!
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• Chase Freedom – 5% cash-back at Gas Stations and Kohl's.
• $75 maximum cash back per quarter. You need to activate the 5%.
• Chase Freedom 2015 5% categories
• $200 sign up bonus for spending $500 in 90 days (ends very soon), you will get another $25 bonus if you add an authorized user who makes one purchase in the first 90 days.
  

• Chase Ink Classic (Business Card) - 5% cashback at Office Supply Stores, Cable, Phone (Landline or cell) and Internet bills.
• 20,000 Ultimate Rewards for spending $3,000 in 3 months.
• No annual Fee

• Citi Dividend - 5% cashback on Hilton Hotels and Airlines
• Up to $6,000 of purchases a year instead of $1,500 a quarter (up to $300 cashback for the year).  I haven't used it much this year.
• I might use this for airlines, but I am sure many of you can use this.
• You can't sign up for this card, but many people have reported that you can product change from a different Citi card to the Dividend.

• Bank of America Better Balance Rewards - $25 back for every quarter that you pay your full bill or more than the minimum balance in every month. Another $5 if you have a Bank of America Checking account.

• Best Usage - Set up a monthly bill on this card and auto pay the full balance. You never have to think about it and then every three months you will get $30.
• You can try to get multiple of these cards as well.
• Sign up for a card with a sign up bonus and then product change to the BBR card.

• Bank of America Cash Rewards - 3.3% on Gas into a Bank of America Checking account - 5.25% on gas if you have preferred rewards

• "Old" American Express Blue Cash - 5% cashback at groceries and select pharmacies after $6,500 of yearly spend at 1%.

• Fidelity American Express Investment Rewards – 2% cash-back everywhere else.
• This card is always in my wallet.  Discover it can replace this card for a year.
• Alternatively, you can use the Discover it Miles card for 3% cashback everywhere during your first year of the card.

• Charles Schwab Check Card – Unlimited Free ATMs Withdrawals at every ATM in the world
• This card is always in my wallet

My Ideal Wallet 2015 Q2

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Credit Sesame

These are the Credit and Debit cards that will either be in my wallet from April 1st until the end of June 2015


Make sure to sign up for Credit Sesame and/or Credit Karma to monitor any changes in your credit history for free (I have both).

• American Express Blue Preferred – 6% cash-back at groceries (up to 6k a year), 3% at gas and 1% everywhere else.  There is a $75 annual fee so it is only for those who spend a lot of money on groceries or for those who have a close Supermarket that sells $500 Visa Gift Cards.
• $200 sign up bonus for spending $1,000 in the first 3 months
• You get 6% on gift cards you buy at the grocery store as well.

• Citi Dividend - 5% cashback on Hilton Hotels and Airlines.
• Up to $6,000 of purchases a year instead of $1,500 a quarter (up to $300 cashback for the year).
• I might use this for airlines, but I am sure many of you can use this.
• You can't sign up for this card, but many people have reported that you can product change from a different Citi card to the Dividend.

• Chase Freedom – 5% cash-back at restaurants, bed bath and beyond, H&M and overstock.com 
• $75 maximum cash back per quarter.  You need to activate the 5%.
• Chase Freedom 2015 5% categories
• $100 sign up bonus for spending $500 in 90 days, you will get another $25 bonus if you add an authorized user who makes one purchase in the first 90 days.

• Discover it® - 5% cash-back on Restaurants and Movies.  
• 5% cashback for Discover is actually more than 5%
• Must be activated before purchase to qualify for cashback bonus
• Discover points are not as valuable as Chase Ultimate Rewards currency so only use it for restaurants if you have already maximized your Chase Freedom frist.

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• Chase Ink Classic (Business Card) - 5% cashback at Office Supply Stores, Cable, Phone (Landline or cell) and Internet bills.
• 20,000 Ultimate Rewards for spending $3,000 in 3 months.
• No annual Fee

• Bank of America Better Balance Rewards - $25 back for every quarter that you pay your full bill or more than the minimum balance in every month.  Another $5 if you have a Bank of America Checking account.
• Best Usage - Set up a monthly bill on this card and auto pay the full balance. You never have to think about it and then every three months you will get $30.
• You can try to get multiple of these cards as well.

• Bank of America Cash Rewards - 3.3% on Gas into a Bank of America Checking account - 5.25% on gas if you have preferred rewards

• Fidelity American Express Investment Rewards – 2% cash-back everywhere else.
• This card is always in my wallet
• Alternatively, you can use the Discover it Miles card for 3% cashback everywhere during your first year of the card.

• Charles Schwab Check Card – Unlimited Free ATMs Withdrawals at every ATM in the world
• This card is always in my wallet

My Ideal Wallet Q2 2014

Related Links

Best Credit Cards

Credit Card Sign Up Offers

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Credit Sesame 

These are the Credit and Debit cards that will be in my wallet (assuming my wallet was the size of George's) from now until the end of June 2014


Make sure to sign up for Credit Sesame and/or Credit Karma to monitor any changes in your credit history for free (I have both).

• American Express Blue Preferred – 6% cash-back at groceries (up to 6k a year), 3% at gas and 1% everywhere else.  There is a $75 annual fee so it is only for those who spend a lot of money on groceries.
• $150 sign up bonus for spending $1,000 in the first 3 months
• You get 6% on a gift cards you buy at the grocery store as well.
• You also get one year free membership to Amazon prime if you have signed up for the card in the last 3 months

• Citi Dividend - 5% categories have not been announced yet
• Up to $6,000 of purchases a year instead of $1,500 a quarter (up to $300 cashback for the year).  I have no use for this card anymore this year since I already maxed out the rewards for the year in the first quarter.
• $100 sign up bonus for spending $500 in 90 days.

• Chase Freedom – 5% cash-back at Restaurants and Lowe's (Lowe's sells many third party gift cards).
• $75 maximum cash back per quarter.  You need to activate the 5%.
• Chase Freedom 2014 5% categories
• $100 sign up bonus for spending $500 in 90 days

• Discover it®  - 5% cash-back on Home Improvement stores (Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.), Furniture Stores, Bed Bath and Beyond.
• 5% cashback for Discover is actually more than 5%
• Activation and 2014 Calender is here
• $150 Sign up Bonus for spending $750 in three months.

• Chase Ink Classic (Business Card) - 5% cashback at Office Supply Stores, Cable, Phone (Landline or cell) and Internet bills.
• 20,000 Ultimate Rewards for spending $3,000 in 3 months.
• No annual Fee

• Bank of America Better Balance Rewards - $25 back for every quarter that you pay your full bill or more than the minimum balance in every month.  Another $5 if you have a Bank of America Checking account.
• Best Usage - Set up a monthly bill on this card and auto pay the full balance. You never have to think about it and then every three months you will get $30.

• Bank of America Cash Rewards - 3.3% on Gas into a Bank of America Checking account - 4.5% if you have a Bank of America Privileges Card.
• Normally in my wallet for gas, but I will use Chase Freedom for 3 months.

• Fidelity American Express Investment Rewards – 2% cash-back everywhere else.
•  This card is always in my wallet

• Charles Schwab Check Card – Unlimited Free ATMs Withdrawals at every ATM in the world
• This card is always in my wallet

Credit Sesame - Free Credit Score and Monitoring

Update2: After under 13 minutes on the phone with Banana Republic I was able to remove the delinquency from my history and it will be taken off from the credit bureaus' report within 24 hours, after that I will call to cancel my citibank account.


Update: The email told me that I was late on one of my accounts, but didn't say which one so I signed up for Citibank Credit Monitoring for a 30 day $1 trial and I will call  1-866-279-9637 before the 30 days are over to cancel so that I only pay $1 instead of the regular $12.95 a month fee.

I found out that I had a bill for $2 on my Banana Republic card that I didn't pay! $2!  I quickly paid it and I will have to call them up to make sure they remove it from my credit history.



If you have multiple credit cards, it can be difficult to keep on top of all of them all.  I try to put all of my cards on automatic payments so that I am never late and I don't have to think about it.

Every once in a while something slips past the goalie.

Today was one of those days.  I got an email that said the following:

We found the following change on your TransUnion credit report on November 29, 2012:

PAYMENTS You have become delinquent on 1 of your accounts. Details

Once you know about this, find out which card it is and call them.  You can almost always avoid any fees and dings on your credit just by asking them to take it off.  As long as you take care of it right away, you'll be fine.


I had no idea that I was late on a credit card so I am really happy I signed up for Credit Sesame.  I wouldn't have known about it otherwise!

Credit Sesame is completely free.  They only make money if you use their partners, which you are under no obligation to sign up for.



You can get also a free yearly credit report (without a credit score) from annualcreditreport.com  They give you a free report every year from each of the three credit agencies so you can get one every quarter as long as you get a different one.

Free Monthly Credit Score - Credit Sesame and Credit Karma

Credit Sesame is a free ways to keep on top of your credit score and all of your expenses.  They update your score every month for free. (Thanks for the referral too :)

When you sign up they will show you all the debt you have on each of your credit cards.  They will also show you how much you owe on your mortgage and your monthly payments.  They will analyze all that information for you and offer advice on how you could get your credit score higher and get your debt lower.

They make money if you use their partners to lower you debt load but if you are just using it to monitor your credit picture and score you can use it for free.  In fact, they never ask for your credit card when you sign up.

You can also get a free annual credit report from the three credit bureaus (ie - 3 a year, one from each bureau).