August 11, 2025 • 37 mins
Book a 1:1 Personalized Points Strategy Session!
We share our strategic framework for deciding when to cancel, downgrade, or keep credit cards to maximize value while maintaining a healthy credit score.
• Always keep cards open for at least one year to maintain good relationships with banks
• No-annual-fee cards should generally be kept open unless they're preventing you from getting other cards
• Evaluate whether annual fee cards provide benefits that exceed their cost (like hotel free night certificates)
• Consider downgrading cards to no-annual-fee versions rather than canceling to preserve your credit line
• Never cancel your oldest credit card as it establishes your length of credit history
• Closing cards impacts your credit utilization ratio which can affect your credit score
• Ask yourself five key questions before making any cancellation decision
• Recent credit card application updates including approvals for Hawaiian Airlines business cards
• Staycation experience at Grand Hyatt Scottsdale with an upgraded hospitality suite
• Unexpected fan encounter at hotel check-in from a podcast listener
Follow us on Instagram for more travel hacking tips and strategies, and check out our website for credit card consultation services if you need personalized guidance.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In this hobby, knowing when to cancel a credit
card can be just as important asknowing which ones to open in
the first place.
In today's episode, we arediving into when to keep a card,
when to downgrade a card andwhen to finally let it go and
cancel it.
So listen in.
Hi, I'm Raya.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I'm Dwayne, and we are your hosts of the Travel
Party of Five podcast, where weshare how we travel as a family
of five around the world.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We will also share how we use points and miles to
travel as affordably as possibleand sometimes even completely
free.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So if you're wanting to travel more with your family
but you're not sure how, we'dlove for you to listen in.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn
a thing or two to get youcloser to your next trip.
Welcome back.
Thanks for tuning in.
Hello friends, it's anotherwonderful podcast, episode One
(01:16):
where Rhea talks most of thetime, as usual.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Just so you guys know .
Before we recorded this, dwaynesaid Do you need me for this,
or do you think you could justdo it on your own?
Okay, so before we dive intothe headline topic, what are we
going to talk about?
Dwayne?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
We had a stay at the Grand Hyatt, scottsdale this
past weekend.
Yeah, it's one of our favoriteplaces.
We always go in the summertimebecause they have a great pool
for the kids and they alwayshave a great time what else are
we going to talk about?
Are you trying to push pushyour celebrity status?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
no to me, oh my gosh no, I, right before we started
recording, I said we're going todo this and this, and then
we're going to talk about whento cancel a credit card.
What was the other thing I said?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
you were subtly trying to.
Oh, lord.
Okay, let's Get me to talkabout how you're famous.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
First we're going to talk about a few credit cards we
got denied for and approved forin the last week.
Remember yes.
Okay, people really seem to likewhen we share, like the details
of credit card approvals anddenials and we have a few.
So it has been or, as of theother day, it had been 31 days
(02:30):
since I applied for the ChaseSapphire Reserve for business
card so and was denied, and soapplication was officially
expired or should have been andso I applied again and was
denied again, and so then Iapplied for Duwayne and Dwayne
was also denied and, to be clear, it like says it's going into
review.
But I know that's a denial forus every single time it's either
(02:52):
auto approval or nothing.
And my reason for denial wastoo many open accounts with
Chase.
Yours was that plus likeinsufficient business deposit
relationship.
We don't have business checkingaccounts with Chase, so I'm
just like, okay, whatever, Imoved on.
Then I also applied for formyself for the Capital One Spark
(03:14):
card.
I think it's called Spark Plus,something like that.
Whatever one has the elevatedbonus of 150,000 Capital One
points for, I think, 15,000 inspend.
If you're listening to this theday that it airs, I'm pretty
sure this is the day that thatoffer expires because it's an
elevated offer.
So if you're listening to this,in the future this probably
doesn't exist anymore, but it'sokay, because I was also denied
(03:36):
for that one and I even wentthrough all my credit reports
and checked which one had themost inquiries and I froze that
one.
It was Experian.
And checked which one had themost inquiries and I froze that
one.
It was Experian and I frozethat one and I was still denied.
So Was I also denied.
I didn't apply for you becauseit counts this is a business
card but also counts towards 524.
And we're both at 424.
(03:58):
But I will drop down to 324 inOctober.
So I was willing to sacrificeand go to $524 for a few months,
but you cannot do that becauseyou will not be below $424 until
October of 2026.
So you can only get businesscards that don't count towards
$524 for the next like close toa year.
(04:21):
So didn't apply for you.
Like close to a year, so didn'tapply for you.
But then I moved on to adifferent bank and I decided to
apply for the Hawaiian businesscard, hawaiian Airlines business
card.
Okay, it's not an elevatedoffer.
(04:42):
It's like 50,000 miles.
It's not a huge amount of spend.
I think it's $4,000.
But the bank is Barclays and soI took a chance and applied for
each of us for that card, andHawaiian miles are now
essentially the same as Alaskamiles, and there's a lot of
speculation that with theHawaiian Airlines and Alaska
(05:03):
Airlines merger that's beengoing on in the last year, that
the Hawaiian cards are going togo away, and so I figured might
as well get those now and we'llstart building up our stash of
Alaska miles.
So both applications went intoreview, but one to two hours
later we each had a text and anemail saying like welcome to
(05:24):
your new account.
So we were both approved forthat and actually I need to put
that in our travel freely app.
But business cards won't counttowards 524.
A spend that we can easily hitin the next month or two.
And then I'm still also workingon a minimum spend for the
Marriott business card that Iopened a few weeks ago.
(05:46):
It's Marriott.
Yeah, you're right, actually itis Marriott, it just doesn't
sound right.
You know Marriott rolls off thetongue, but I so, technically,
right now we're working on theminimum spend for three cards,
but the Marriott card has sixmonths to meet the minimum spend
(06:06):
and once we meet the minimumspend and we earned the three
free nights, those are going toexpire one year from then.
So I actually don't want tomeet the minimum spend on that
for a few more months because Iwant to be able to use these
next fall.
So I figured in the meantime wecan work on these other cards
and I'm still going to attemptone more ink.
(06:29):
I'm going to put some spend onDwayne's one remaining business
card with Chase that he has,which is a Chase Ink Preferred,
and I'm going to do an Amex andI'm going to put some spend on
it over the next month or so andthen we're going to apply again
for a Chase Inc cash for youand if they don't approve it,
we're going to call recon thistime because this is getting
ridiculous.
Yeah, so that's the plan and ifyou're interested in the cards,
(06:53):
I hope that was helpful.
We are going to talk a littlebit about our staycation at the
Grand Hyatt, scottsdale.
We didn't want to do a wholeepisode because I think we
already have two episodes on theGrand Hyatt and it kind of felt
redundant, but it remains oneof our favorite hotels.
Yeah, let's talk about it.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, it's one of our favorites.
Like I said, the pool there isgreat, service is great and it's
a 20 minute drive from where welive.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, it's not far at all.
Yeah, even the kids.
When we drove home earliertoday, one of our kids was like
that wasn't long at all and itwasn't so.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
So why don't you talk about the check in?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, so okay, so we okay.
It's kind of the check in was aprocess and leading up to this
day, there was a bunch of weirdthings that were happening and
so this room was obviouslybooked under my name so we could
use my globalist status and but, like, dwayne kept getting the
(07:58):
emails leading up to it, whichwas weird, but it wasn't showing
in his Hyatt app, it was stillshowing in mine, and so we had
just booked a standard room,kind of hoping it's summer, like
in Phoenix, it's low season,right, it's not super busy.
Was hoping for some kind of anupgrade and I could see that
they had suites available duringour stay.
So, and we were only there fortwo nights, also as a side note
(08:18):
so we go to check in and thegirl is first, first of all,
super nice and helpful.
Was having a hard time, likeshe could see our reservation,
but the my status wasn't showingup and it kept pulling like his
under his name, but it was.
The whole thing was very weird.
We were at check-in for a longtime.
Um, once she finally kind ofgot it figured out, she even had
(08:42):
to call like the help, likeHyatt help desk or whatever.
Corporate something, and she waslike she would try to put in my
email.
And when she would put in myemail she was like I can see
your status.
Like I know your name was onthe reservation because I've
been looking at the like likethe logs for the last few weeks.
She's like I know that it wasthere, but now it's under
(09:04):
Duane's name.
For the last few weeks she'slike I know that it was there,
but now it's under Dwayne's name.
So she was basically trying toapply my status and I'm like,
listen, I don't care whose nameit's under, as long as number
one, I get the qualifying nights, because we need that to keep
the status, and number two, weget the benefits.
So eventually it ended upworking out.
And then I was like, by the way, are there any suites that I
could see in the app?
(09:24):
They had the palm suite, that'stheir standard suite.
And but she was like no, it'snot available.
And I was like, really, cause,it shows available in the app.
And she's like I can show youlike how it looks back here, but
it's only available for one ofthe nights.
And I was like, well, just soyou know, it shows that I can
(09:49):
book it online.
So like you should probablydouble check on that, because
someone's someone else isprobably going to be thinking
the same thing I'm thinking andI fully, I want to be clear.
I fully believed her, but I wasalso saying like, hey, like
this is showing available, so ifit's not some and someone books
it, they're gonna be mad, soanyway.
So she's like I do have like anupgrade if you want to pay, and
it's a, the suite was thehospitality suite and that's a
premium suite.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
And she said it was going to be an extra $350 a
night.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yes, and I was like, oh no, that's, that's way too
much.
I was like we're not going todo that.
Um, I was like, is there anyway you could do any better?
And she's like, okay, hold on,let me look and let me check.
And so she ended up saying theycould do it for $150 a night.
But I think that was onlybecause we were having such a
struggle getting checked in.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I mean, we were at the check-in desk at For like a
half an hour.
Yeah, for at least half an houryeah.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And then, I think also to compound things, we also
had other reservations underour name for the next night for
some of Duane's family that wasgoing to come and stay, kind of.
That was kind of a last minutething and so she was like, wait,
do you have three reservations?
We're like we do, but one isfor tomorrow and these are like
standard rooms and blah, blah,so blah.
(11:04):
So, anyways, I went back andforth do I want to pay the 150 a
night?
But ultimately we wanted tohave the extra space.
We knew we had a bunch offamily coming and they would
have standard rooms, and so Ijust thought, sure.
And also, to be honest, I was alittle curious to see this suite
, because I saw it in the appand I was, wow, that looks like
really.
(11:24):
It was over a thousand dollarsa night, so I was like, wow,
that looks really nice.
So I said, okay, let's do it.
So we, we did pay the 150.
I thought that was superreasonable.
Do you want to explain, like,what the hospitality suite is?
Because I didn't even know.
This is a thing some hotelshave, apparently.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, it's just it's usually used for groups that are
in-house, that have meetings orconferences and they typically
it could be a meeting point forthem or it could be like a late
night suite where they can goand, you know, get some wine,
play some cards or whatever itis.
But I mean, it was probably.
I mean, how big do you think itwas?
(12:01):
I mean a thousand square feetroom.
The balcony on this hospitalitysuite was another thousand
square feet.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yes, the name of the suite was the hospitality suite
with extended balcony.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah, I mean it wasn't a thousand square feet,
but it was probably at least 400square feet.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
It was huge.
The balcony, yes.
So essentially the hospitalitysuite is right next door to a
standard king room and there's aconnecting door.
So we had a standard king roomfor Duane and I and in that king
room was a pull-out chair thatlike a small child could have
slept on.
We didn't end up ever, or not.
A chair, a little sofa, it wasa single bed, so like a kid
(12:46):
could have slept on it, but wenever ended up using it.
And then the connecting dooropens up into the hospitality
suite, which had like a hugedining room table for like six
or eight people, a little like awet bar, yeah, like a, like a,
an actual fridge, not like ayeah not like a um mini fridge,
(13:06):
but like a I don't know.
It was like drawers that youpulled out, but it was a fridge
and there were two of them, um,like storage and stuff, an
electric kettle, the you knowthe coffee pot, all of that, a
sink and then another fullbathroom, so two full, and then
like a huge living room areawith a pullout sofa, bunch of
(13:28):
chairs and then the balcony.
We're on the second floor, sonot super high up, but the view
out the balcony was beautiful.
I mean, it was a ton of room,it was so much room.
It was more room than we needed, quite honestly, but the suite
was beautiful.
I don't think, generally, youcould get an upgrade for that
(13:50):
cheap.
I just think they were graciousbecause we're having a lot of
issues at check in and, like Iwas, I wasn't stressed about the
check in process.
It did take longer than usual,but I was just kind of like I
knew it was going to be figuredout, like I wasn't worried about
it, you know, yeah, and so thenDwayne's family came on
Saturday and stayed Saturdaynight and our kids they have a
(14:11):
couple of cut their cousins werethere and so got to spend all
day in the pool playing withtheir cousins.
And we went out to dinner andgot to wake up and have
breakfast and they just thoughtlike I mean, how fun that you
get to hang out in a hotel withyour cousins for like a whole
day Having a great time.
Yeah, thriving.
Even our 11-year-old said hehad a great time.
(14:32):
That's high praise.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
But while we were checking in, rhea got a message.
This is the whole celebritything I was talking about
earlier.
So while we were checking in, rgets a message on instagram.
Yes, from a listener shout outto you hi, angie, miss angie.
(14:56):
Shout out to you that said ohmy god, I just saw you checking
into the grand hyatt hotel.
Um, apparently she's a teacherand she said that she was there
with her husband celebrating heranniversary.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
I think so yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
And that she booked her stay there on points and
from what she learned from you.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, I was like oh my God, this is first of all.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
And that's pretty effing awesome.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, we like.
First of all, I was so in shockbecause the beginning of the
message was like I just saw youchecking in at the Grand Hyatt,
Scottsdale, and I was like I waslike what?
I was like that's neverhappened to me before in my life
.
And then the rest of themessage was just so kind and I
was like oh my God.
I was like wait, why didn't yousay hi?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Very nice yes.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
And they were like on their way out, their Uber was
there or something any of you inreal life Like.
But I just was like this hasnever happened to me before and
I was like this is so funny.
And then I like texted my momand my sister and I was like
(15:59):
this is like the best thing I'veever read, like I love this,
and so, oh, and I was like I'mnever gonna shut up about this.
And so then they were justjoking the whole weekend about.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, I had to like wipe the sweat from her forehead
.
I had to stand her down whenshe was at a massager feet when
she was tired like I had oh god,none of that is true but I had
to treat her like a celebrity.
Oh please, even when my familygot there, I said hey, do me a
favor, text, ray, and tell himthat you're here because of what
(16:32):
you learned on our broadcast.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Oh my God, yeah, we were having a.
It was pretty funny.
But hello, Angie.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I hope that you had an amazing time on your trip and
I hope the hotel did notdisappoint Hopefully, I mean.
I think us going there backover and over again, I feel like
, is proof that it's a it's areally good property.
So yeah and yeah.
So we oh, I did want to talkone more thing.
So I was able to gift club.
(17:04):
Oh, this, I'm sorry, this wasanother issue.
Actually, I tried to gift clubaccess awards to the other two
rooms that were booked forDwayne's family so that they
could access the club and getthe breakfast and all that.
But when I tried to do itthrough Hyatt chat it wouldn't
work.
So when I mentioned that atcheck in, after we already had
all these other issues with ournames being linked and they
(17:26):
couldn't unlink him, it was sostrange.
I was like I also tried toapply these club awards but like
, but they told me I couldn't.
And she was like wait, that'sweird.
Of course you can.
She's like I'll just apply itfor you to the room.
So they did get club access forthe day that they were there.
I don't think they used ourclub access awards, so we still
(17:48):
have them.
I find them hard to use, quitehonestly, because when you have
status, you get it anyway.
So, anyways, we were able to usethe club.
It was really great, actually,because everyone saved a ton of
money and it included thebreakfast.
And when we were there in March, february, march the breakfast
(18:09):
for globalists was in the club.
But now and I don't know ifthis is forever or what but now
it's not in the club.
But now and I don't know ifthis is forever or what, but now
it's not in the club.
The club doesn't open until 11.
And you have breakfast in theMesa Central, which is like the
regular breakfast restaurant.
So you can either do the buffetor order off the menu, your
choice.
But I like that better than aclub breakfast because it gives
(18:32):
you more options.
And I generally like to orderoff a menu because I think it's
better food, because it's likehot and fresh, you know, and
with the club access, all of allof the people with us and all
three of the rooms we had atefor free.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
We had a table for 13 people.
We had so many people thismorning that they had to throw
us in like a differentrestaurant with their table.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
They moved us into a back room, which was funny,
shout out to our server.
Yeah, he was great.
We've had him multiple times.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
We've had him every year.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
we've been there he's great and he's been there for a
long time.
Anyways, I guess that wraps itup.
Everything else we've ever saidabout the property remains the
same.
They have lots of funactivities.
When we were at the poolyesterday there was painting
going on.
You had to.
Some of them you have to signup in advance for, so if you
have a stay coming up, justcheck on the website and make
(19:25):
sure you don't need like areservation.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Um I mean the adult pool all day had a dj playing
music.
Yeah, um, the kid pool had a DJat night from I think it was
like 6 to 9.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Actually yes.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
The lights going on.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Our kids were out on our balcony listening to the
music and apparently it was themusic from K-pop Demon Hunters,
which is a hot thing right now.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Apparently, it's really popular right now.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
I mean it's catchy.
I catch myself jamming to itwhen the kids are watching it.
You've never heard it.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I mean, I hear it every day.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
You don't think it's catchy, though I mean it's okay.
Okay, anyways, enough about thehotel.
It's great.
We'll go back again next year.
We go every year.
One of the top three thingsthat I get asked is around
canceling credit cards, and Iknow that we've talked about
(20:22):
this in a previous episode, butwhen someone asked me the other
day, I tried to go back and findthe episode and I couldn't Like
, based on all the episodetitles, I couldn't find it.
So we are going to title thisepisode something along the
lines of canceling credit cardsand we're going to talk about
kind of how, how we thinkthrough, or how I think through,
the process, because I thinkthere's just like everything in
(20:45):
this hobby, there's just a lotof nuance and like various
strategies that go intocanceling cards.
So, and I think, okay, let meask you this If I were like you
need to cancel this credit card,what do you do?
You feel a certain way aboutthat.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Nothing at all.
I okay, Well, that that didn'tlead me to where I wanted to go,
but you told me to cancel acard, I'm going to cancel it and
not think twice about it.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I think people get stuck on this because they don't
want to do the wrong thing andthey're not sure if it makes
sense to cancel and they don'twant to make the bank mad.
That's like what I think.
Why I think it's a difficultdecision, right?
They're like I don.
Why I think it's a difficultdecision, right?
They're like I don't want topiss off the bank and I don't
(21:36):
want them to be upset with me,right For canceling a card.
So, okay, these are the thingsI think through when I think
okay, am I going to?
Does it make sense to keep thiscard or cancel it?
Number one it has to be open fora year, no matter what.
Sometimes I see people post inFacebook groups where they're
(21:57):
like okay, open this card 10days ago.
And I'm like having anxietyabout it, like, should I just
cancel it?
Absolutely freaking, not, noway.
You've.
You've committed keep it openfor a year.
Okay, you, at this point,you're already gonna be charging
annual fee If there is one likeit for a year.
Okay, you, at this point,you're already gonna be charging
annual fee if there is one likeit.
Like, let it go, it doesn'tmatter.
So, always, always, always,keep it open for at least a year
(22:19):
and because we track all of ourcards in the travel freely app,
it alerts me when the one yearmark is coming up.
So when I go in there to lookit'll be, I think it's like
reddish colored if there's anannual fee coming up in the next
, like 45 days or so and that'swhen I know, okay, the
anniversary of this card iscoming up and that's when I can
(22:41):
figure out like am I going tokeep it?
Am I going to cancel it?
Am I going to downgrade itmaybe?
So number one has it been openfor at least a year?
If the answer is yes, then it'slike okay, is there an annual
fee?
If there's no annual fee, I'mprobably going to leave it open,
(23:05):
unless keeping it open ispreventing me from getting
another card or similar card.
So, like the Chase Inc cards,for example, a lot of the a lot
of people get denied now thatthey've cracked down because you
have too many business cardsopen.
So I'm probably going to closeout my Chase Inks as they hit
the year mark for the most part.
(23:27):
The Chase Inc cash is probablythe biggest exception because I
can earn 5x at office supplystores on that card.
So I've had my chasing cashopen for more than a year at
this point, almost two, okay.
So number one has it been morethan a year?
Number two is there an annualfee?
Okay, if there is an annual fee, then it's like okay, what is
(23:51):
the annual fee?
And am I using the benefits?
So for, like a co branded card,meaning like an airline card or
a hotel card?
Most of those not all, but mostof those, especially the hotel
cards are around like 95 to $99annual fee every year and a lot
(24:12):
of those hotel cardsspecifically come with an annual
free night certificate.
So we have the IHG Premier cardor I do and I also have the
World of Hyatt personal card.
Both of those come with a freenight certificate every year.
I've had the IHG card open fortwo years now and the World of
Hyatt for almost one.
(24:32):
I've used my IHG free nightcertificate every year and I
will absolutely use my Hyatt oneand I know exactly where we're
going to use it next year.
So those cards, even thoughthey have an annual fee, those
are worth it to me because thebenefit that we're getting is
always more than the annual fee.
Right, like we use our IHG cardat or free night certificate.
(24:59):
I mean, when we went toYosemite I think that room was
like 200 bucks.
We use the free nightcertificate plus like 11,000 IHG
points or something like that.
So I think that's well.
That's well over the $95 annualfee that we pay for it.
So we're coming on ahead there.
Same with the Hyatt.
Like it's a category onethrough four.
(25:19):
I'm going to use it at acategory four hotel if I can and
for sure earn back the.
You know the.
I think it's $95 annual fee.
So if there is an annual feeand you're not using the
benefits to cover it, and thatcan be for, like the higher
(25:40):
cards, right, like the AmexBusiness Platinum, for example.
I have two right now.
My one year anniversary on thefirst one just hit and I'm going
to cancel it.
I just need to make sure I'musing up as many credits as I
can for the second half of theyear and then I'm going to be
canceling the card because wedon't need to and I struggle to
(26:02):
use the benefits, especially nowthat they have kind of changed
them.
I struggled to use the benefitsfor that.
So that's when we're going toclose.
That's when we're going toclose Another card I just closed
for you is the United Businesscard, and I closed that because
it's a Chase card and it had a$99 annual fee.
(26:24):
And I also have this card, sowe don't both need to have one.
Having a United card gives youaccess to more award
availability, so it's importantthat one of us has a card, but
we don't both need to have acard.
We don't fly United very often.
We just got it because it wasan elevated bonus and it was a
(26:44):
business card.
So what are your thoughts onany of this so far?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Like I said, you're going to be doing most of the
talking because you're theaccountant, slash travel agent,
slash El Jefa.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
El Jefa.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
The boss.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
That sounds attractive, okay, so that's kind
of how I think through theannual fee or I'm sorry, not the
annual fee the decision ofwhether or not to close it.
So has it been open a year,more than a year?
Is there an annual fee?
You know, if no, I'm going tokeep it open, unless it's
preventing me from gettinganother card, and in that case
(27:24):
I'm going to close it.
And then, if there is an annualfee, am I using the benefits?
If no, I'm going to close it,and that's that's really it.
That's how I think through it.
I think there are some otheroptions if you don't want to
cancel the card, and that isdowngrading cards, and I think
this is kind of overlooked alittle bit.
But there are A lot of personalcards that have annual fees
(27:48):
that can be downgraded to cardsthat have no annual fee, and
there are some business cardsyou can do that with as well.
An example of a business cardwould be like I could downgrade
my Amex Platinum to an Amex BlueBusiness Plus.
Maybe I'll do that.
There's no annual fee.
I already have a Blue BusinessPlus, so I don't know.
(28:09):
I guess I can think throughthat, but my goal is to get rid
of that annual fee because Idon't want to pay it.
On that specific card, wedowngraded your Chase Sapphire
Preferred a few months ago to aChase Freedom Flex that also has
no annual fee and allows youactually to earn 5X on rotating
bonus categories Every quarterthey change on rotating bonus
(28:33):
categories, every quarter theychange.
So I think, think, thinkingthrough, like, can I downgrade
this card and if so, what wouldI downgrade to?
Again, there are a lot ofbusiness cards where you can't
eat.
There's no downgrade option.
But there are some personalcards I find generally have a
more.
There's there's more optionsavailable for downgrading.
So if you have a specific cardthat you're wondering about, I
(28:54):
would just Google it.
Just Google, like what can Idowngrade my blah blah blah card
to and see what the options are.
You could also ask chat GPT andsee what it says, but you got
to take what chat GPT tells you,or even Google, with a grain of
salt.
So one of the benefits ofdowngrading versus canceling is
(29:16):
that you are going to keep yourtotal available credit amount
the same.
So one of the pieces that goesinto what makes up your credit
score is your credit utilizationratio and that is basically a
ratio of how much credit carddebt do you have, and when I say
(29:37):
debt, I mean like any kind ofbalance, so it doesn't have to
be true credit card debt.
But it could be like oh, I havea $2,000 balance from last
month's expenses that I haven'tpaid yet.
Okay, that is the first pieceof your of the ratio, and then
the second piece is the totalamount of available credit you
have.
So, across all the credit cardsthat you have, right, what are
(30:00):
all the credit limits?
You would add that up andthat's your total amount of
available credit.
So if you had three credit cardsand they had $30,000 limits on
each, your total availablecredit is $90,000.
And then if your balance islet's, for easy math, let's just
say it's $9,000.
So you're using 9,000 of 90,your utilization ratio is 10%.
(30:25):
Okay, the lower that ratiogenerally is the better, and a
way to keep the ratio low is tomake sure that you're keeping
your available credit high.
So that's one thing to thinkabout when you are canceling a
credit card is is there adowngrade option that would give
(30:45):
me no annual fee but wouldstill keep my total amount of
available credit the same?
Because if you lower youravailable credit, then your
credit utilization percentagegoes up.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
So that is something to think about.
So if you can downgrade, Ithink that's maybe a better
option.
But I also think, like it'sokay to cancel cards.
I have canceled three cards inthe last month to cancel cards.
I have canceled three cards inthe last month.
One of them is the UnitedBusiness for you.
I'm going to cancel my AmexBusiness Platinum one of them or
downgrade it.
(31:19):
And then the other one was aBarclays AA card that you had
that you just got a little overa year ago, so canceled all
those and your credit has stayedthe same.
It's fine.
The credit utilization ratio isa small percentage I want to
say 10-ish percent of your totalcredit score, so it's not going
(31:40):
to have a huge effect.
But if you cancel six cards ina month, like then, it is going
to have a big effect.
You know what I mean.
That's the other piece to keepin mind.
Okay, I do think there's onemore piece that goes into
keeping a card, and we kind oftouched on this when we said the
benefits.
But like, for example, rightnow you and I each have the
(32:01):
Chase Sapphire reserve card.
The annual fees on those areare $800 each, so that's $1,600
are like there's some creditsand whatever that offset some of
that.
But we need a card that cantransfer Chase Ultimate Rewards
to travel partners, and that isone of them.
(32:21):
So that's one reason to keep it.
We also live in a our homeairport is Phoenix, which has a
Chase Sapphire lounge, and byeach of us holding that card we
can each get in ourselves plustwo guests, which means we can
take the into all the kids withus when we travel into that
(32:41):
lounge, which will save us somemoney.
We'll have to see over the nextyear how, like how often, we're
actually able to utilize thatas a family, because that will
factor into whether we keep itas the reserve after the year
markets or if we downgrade it toa preferred, for example.
I also think there's one otherthing to mention, and that is if
(33:05):
a credit card is your oldestcredit card, you should never,
ever, close that.
Hopefully it doesn't have anannual fee.
If it does, see if you candowngrade it.
But you never want to closeyour oldest credit card, because
that is what determines thelength of your credit history,
or at least that's part of it,and length of credit history is
(33:25):
another factor that goes intodetermining your credit score
and the longer your credithistory generally, the
determining your credit scoreand the longer your credit
history generally, the betteryour credit score.
Duane is just staring at me,like again.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
That's why I said do you need me on this podcast?
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I wanted you to talk about our stay at the grand
hyatt, for sure, okay.
So I'm gonna recap.
Before canceling a credit card,these are what.
This is what you want to askyourself.
Number one has it been open atleast a year, okay?
Number two is there an annualfee?
If the answer is yes, is theannual fee worth it and am I
(34:05):
using the benefits every yearwithout, like you know, jumping
through hoops?
You know what I mean with thecoupon books, right?
Number three, is having thiscard open keeping me from
getting another one or a bettersign up bonus?
Number four will closing thishurt my credit utilization or
(34:25):
length of credit history?
And then, number five is therea downgrade path for this card?
So, answer all those questionsand then decide.
You know what's going to bebest for you and your situation.
That's the really tricky partabout credit cards is everyone's
situation is so different andno one can, can definitively say
(34:46):
like, yes, you should cancelthis or not, because every
scenario is a little bitdifferent.
So I think deciding whether tokeep, downgrade or cancel it's,
you know, like we've talkedabout.
It's not just about the annualfee.
There's a whole like overallpoint strategy that goes along
with that.
I think.
(35:07):
Take a few minutes to runthrough these questions and you
know with your own cards and youmight be surprised which ones
are worth keeping and which onesare not.
If you are looking foradditional support around any of
this, or maybe you know what todo with the points you already
have or the cards you have oranything like that.
I do have fully live now creditcard um consultations.
(35:31):
They are not free, they arepaid consultations, but you get
a full hour with me and we cango through whatever it is you
want to go go through Um.
My original intention was tohelp someone like okay, you have
you know these points withthese issuers.
Like let's book a trip when doyou want to go?
Like that was my initial plan,but really it can be whatever
(35:54):
you are wanting or needing helpwith.
Again, it is not free, it is apaid consultation, but you get a
pre-questionnaire from me tofill out so we can spend the
entire hour like actually kindof walking through and solving
whatever the problem is andwherever you want to go.
And then you also get a followup with like clear next steps,
(36:16):
like including like videos oflike this is how you transfer
your points and this is howyou'll do it, and all that.
I cannot book any travel foryou because I'm not a travel
agent and nor should you want togive me any of your login
information, but we can like Ican literally make it as clear
as possible, so if you're abeginner, that's something I
would recommend if you need helparound that arena, and I don't
(36:40):
know anything else to add.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I just have a question.
So if I'm at 424.
Yeah, and I cancel one of thosecards, it doesn't make, it
doesn't matter, right, itdoesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
324 now right, yeah, so it goes off of the date
opened, and so even if youcancel it, it doesn't matter,
because it was opened and that'swhat counts.
So the only thing that can makea card fall off your 524 status
is time.
It's a good question, thoughall right.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Well, I hope this was helpful to someone out there.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yes, feel free In podcast land.
Feel free to message me onInstagram if you have questions,
I will put a link to.
If you want to sign up for aconsultation, I'll put a link to
that in the show notes and wewill catch you on the next
episode.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yes, Thanks for tuning in Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Have a good one, thank you.
In this hobby, knowing when to cancel a credit
card can be just as important asknowing which ones to open in
the first place.
In today's episode, we arediving into when to keep a card,
when to downgrade a card andwhen to finally let it go and
cancel it.
So listen in.
Hi, I'm Raya.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I'm Dwayne, and we are your hosts of the Travel
Party of Five podcast, where weshare how we travel as a family
of five around the world.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We will also share how we use points and miles to
travel as affordably as possibleand sometimes even completely
free.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So if you're wanting to travel more with your family
but you're not sure how, we'dlove for you to listen in.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn
a thing or two to get youcloser to your next trip.
Welcome back.
Thanks for tuning in.
Hello friends, it's anotherwonderful podcast, episode One
(01:16):
where Rhea talks most of thetime, as usual.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Just so you guys know .
Before we recorded this, dwaynesaid Do you need me for this,
or do you think you could justdo it on your own?
Okay, so before we dive intothe headline topic, what are we
going to talk about?
Dwayne?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
We had a stay at the Grand Hyatt, scottsdale this
past weekend.
Yeah, it's one of our favoriteplaces.
We always go in the summertimebecause they have a great pool
for the kids and they alwayshave a great time what else are
we going to talk about?
Are you trying to push pushyour celebrity status?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
no to me, oh my gosh no, I, right before we started
recording, I said we're going todo this and this, and then
we're going to talk about whento cancel a credit card.
What was the other thing I said?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
you were subtly trying to.
Oh, lord.
Okay, let's Get me to talkabout how you're famous.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
First we're going to talk about a few credit cards we
got denied for and approved forin the last week.
Remember yes.
Okay, people really seem to likewhen we share, like the details
of credit card approvals anddenials and we have a few.
So it has been or, as of theother day, it had been 31 days
(02:30):
since I applied for the ChaseSapphire Reserve for business
card so and was denied, and soapplication was officially
expired or should have been andso I applied again and was
denied again, and so then Iapplied for Duwayne and Dwayne
was also denied and, to be clear, it like says it's going into
review.
But I know that's a denial forus every single time it's either
(02:52):
auto approval or nothing.
And my reason for denial wastoo many open accounts with
Chase.
Yours was that plus likeinsufficient business deposit
relationship.
We don't have business checkingaccounts with Chase, so I'm
just like, okay, whatever, Imoved on.
Then I also applied for formyself for the Capital One Spark
(03:14):
card.
I think it's called Spark Plus,something like that.
Whatever one has the elevatedbonus of 150,000 Capital One
points for, I think, 15,000 inspend.
If you're listening to this theday that it airs, I'm pretty
sure this is the day that thatoffer expires because it's an
elevated offer.
So if you're listening to this,in the future this probably
doesn't exist anymore, but it'sokay, because I was also denied
(03:36):
for that one and I even wentthrough all my credit reports
and checked which one had themost inquiries and I froze that
one.
It was Experian.
And checked which one had themost inquiries and I froze that
one.
It was Experian and I frozethat one and I was still denied.
So Was I also denied.
I didn't apply for you becauseit counts this is a business
card but also counts towards 524.
And we're both at 424.
(03:58):
But I will drop down to 324 inOctober.
So I was willing to sacrificeand go to $524 for a few months,
but you cannot do that becauseyou will not be below $424 until
October of 2026.
So you can only get businesscards that don't count towards
$524 for the next like close toa year.
(04:21):
So didn't apply for you.
Like close to a year, so didn'tapply for you.
But then I moved on to adifferent bank and I decided to
apply for the Hawaiian businesscard, hawaiian Airlines business
card.
Okay, it's not an elevatedoffer.
(04:42):
It's like 50,000 miles.
It's not a huge amount of spend.
I think it's $4,000.
But the bank is Barclays and soI took a chance and applied for
each of us for that card, andHawaiian miles are now
essentially the same as Alaskamiles, and there's a lot of
speculation that with theHawaiian Airlines and Alaska
(05:03):
Airlines merger that's beengoing on in the last year, that
the Hawaiian cards are going togo away, and so I figured might
as well get those now and we'llstart building up our stash of
Alaska miles.
So both applications went intoreview, but one to two hours
later we each had a text and anemail saying like welcome to
(05:24):
your new account.
So we were both approved forthat and actually I need to put
that in our travel freely app.
But business cards won't counttowards 524.
A spend that we can easily hitin the next month or two.
And then I'm still also workingon a minimum spend for the
Marriott business card that Iopened a few weeks ago.
(05:46):
It's Marriott.
Yeah, you're right, actually itis Marriott, it just doesn't
sound right.
You know Marriott rolls off thetongue, but I so, technically,
right now we're working on theminimum spend for three cards,
but the Marriott card has sixmonths to meet the minimum spend
(06:06):
and once we meet the minimumspend and we earned the three
free nights, those are going toexpire one year from then.
So I actually don't want tomeet the minimum spend on that
for a few more months because Iwant to be able to use these
next fall.
So I figured in the meantime wecan work on these other cards
and I'm still going to attemptone more ink.
(06:29):
I'm going to put some spend onDwayne's one remaining business
card with Chase that he has,which is a Chase Ink Preferred,
and I'm going to do an Amex andI'm going to put some spend on
it over the next month or so andthen we're going to apply again
for a Chase Inc cash for youand if they don't approve it,
we're going to call recon thistime because this is getting
ridiculous.
Yeah, so that's the plan and ifyou're interested in the cards,
(06:53):
I hope that was helpful.
We are going to talk a littlebit about our staycation at the
Grand Hyatt, scottsdale.
We didn't want to do a wholeepisode because I think we
already have two episodes on theGrand Hyatt and it kind of felt
redundant, but it remains oneof our favorite hotels.
Yeah, let's talk about it.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, it's one of our favorites.
Like I said, the pool there isgreat, service is great and it's
a 20 minute drive from where welive.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, it's not far at all.
Yeah, even the kids.
When we drove home earliertoday, one of our kids was like
that wasn't long at all and itwasn't so.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
So why don't you talk about the check in?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, so okay, so we okay.
It's kind of the check in was aprocess and leading up to this
day, there was a bunch of weirdthings that were happening and
so this room was obviouslybooked under my name so we could
use my globalist status and but, like, dwayne kept getting the
(07:58):
emails leading up to it, whichwas weird, but it wasn't showing
in his Hyatt app, it was stillshowing in mine, and so we had
just booked a standard room,kind of hoping it's summer, like
in Phoenix, it's low season,right, it's not super busy.
Was hoping for some kind of anupgrade and I could see that
they had suites available duringour stay.
So, and we were only there fortwo nights, also as a side note
(08:18):
so we go to check in and thegirl is first, first of all,
super nice and helpful.
Was having a hard time, likeshe could see our reservation,
but the my status wasn't showingup and it kept pulling like his
under his name, but it was.
The whole thing was very weird.
We were at check-in for a longtime.
Um, once she finally kind ofgot it figured out, she even had
(08:42):
to call like the help, likeHyatt help desk or whatever.
Corporate something, and she waslike she would try to put in my
email.
And when she would put in myemail she was like I can see
your status.
Like I know your name was onthe reservation because I've
been looking at the like likethe logs for the last few weeks.
She's like I know that it wasthere, but now it's under
(09:04):
Duane's name.
For the last few weeks she'slike I know that it was there,
but now it's under Dwayne's name.
So she was basically trying toapply my status and I'm like,
listen, I don't care whose nameit's under, as long as number
one, I get the qualifying nights, because we need that to keep
the status, and number two, weget the benefits.
So eventually it ended upworking out.
And then I was like, by the way, are there any suites that I
could see in the app?
(09:24):
They had the palm suite, that'stheir standard suite.
And but she was like no, it'snot available.
And I was like, really, cause,it shows available in the app.
And she's like I can show youlike how it looks back here, but
it's only available for one ofthe nights.
And I was like, well, just soyou know, it shows that I can
(09:49):
book it online.
So like you should probablydouble check on that, because
someone's someone else isprobably going to be thinking
the same thing I'm thinking andI fully, I want to be clear.
I fully believed her, but I wasalso saying like, hey, like
this is showing available, so ifit's not some and someone books
it, they're gonna be mad, soanyway.
So she's like I do have like anupgrade if you want to pay, and
it's a, the suite was thehospitality suite and that's a
premium suite.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
And she said it was going to be an extra $350 a
night.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yes, and I was like, oh no, that's, that's way too
much.
I was like we're not going todo that.
Um, I was like, is there anyway you could do any better?
And she's like, okay, hold on,let me look and let me check.
And so she ended up saying theycould do it for $150 a night.
But I think that was onlybecause we were having such a
struggle getting checked in.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I mean, we were at the check-in desk at For like a
half an hour.
Yeah, for at least half an houryeah.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And then, I think also to compound things, we also
had other reservations underour name for the next night for
some of Duane's family that wasgoing to come and stay, kind of.
That was kind of a last minutething and so she was like, wait,
do you have three reservations?
We're like we do, but one isfor tomorrow and these are like
standard rooms and blah, blah,so blah.
(11:04):
So, anyways, I went back andforth do I want to pay the 150 a
night?
But ultimately we wanted tohave the extra space.
We knew we had a bunch offamily coming and they would
have standard rooms, and so Ijust thought, sure.
And also, to be honest, I was alittle curious to see this suite
, because I saw it in the appand I was, wow, that looks like
really.
(11:24):
It was over a thousand dollarsa night, so I was like, wow,
that looks really nice.
So I said, okay, let's do it.
So we, we did pay the 150.
I thought that was superreasonable.
Do you want to explain, like,what the hospitality suite is?
Because I didn't even know.
This is a thing some hotelshave, apparently.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, it's just it's usually used for groups that are
in-house, that have meetings orconferences and they typically
it could be a meeting point forthem or it could be like a late
night suite where they can goand, you know, get some wine,
play some cards or whatever itis.
But I mean, it was probably.
I mean, how big do you think itwas?
(12:01):
I mean a thousand square feetroom.
The balcony on this hospitalitysuite was another thousand
square feet.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yes, the name of the suite was the hospitality suite
with extended balcony.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah, I mean it wasn't a thousand square feet,
but it was probably at least 400square feet.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
It was huge.
The balcony, yes.
So essentially the hospitalitysuite is right next door to a
standard king room and there's aconnecting door.
So we had a standard king roomfor Duane and I and in that king
room was a pull-out chair thatlike a small child could have
slept on.
We didn't end up ever, or not.
A chair, a little sofa, it wasa single bed, so like a kid
(12:46):
could have slept on it, but wenever ended up using it.
And then the connecting dooropens up into the hospitality
suite, which had like a hugedining room table for like six
or eight people, a little like awet bar, yeah, like a, like a,
an actual fridge, not like ayeah not like a um mini fridge,
(13:06):
but like a I don't know.
It was like drawers that youpulled out, but it was a fridge
and there were two of them, um,like storage and stuff, an
electric kettle, the you knowthe coffee pot, all of that, a
sink and then another fullbathroom, so two full, and then
like a huge living room areawith a pullout sofa, bunch of
(13:28):
chairs and then the balcony.
We're on the second floor, sonot super high up, but the view
out the balcony was beautiful.
I mean, it was a ton of room,it was so much room.
It was more room than we needed, quite honestly, but the suite
was beautiful.
I don't think, generally, youcould get an upgrade for that
(13:50):
cheap.
I just think they were graciousbecause we're having a lot of
issues at check in and, like Iwas, I wasn't stressed about the
check in process.
It did take longer than usual,but I was just kind of like I
knew it was going to be figuredout, like I wasn't worried about
it, you know, yeah, and so thenDwayne's family came on
Saturday and stayed Saturdaynight and our kids they have a
(14:11):
couple of cut their cousins werethere and so got to spend all
day in the pool playing withtheir cousins.
And we went out to dinner andgot to wake up and have
breakfast and they just thoughtlike I mean, how fun that you
get to hang out in a hotel withyour cousins for like a whole
day Having a great time.
Yeah, thriving.
Even our 11-year-old said hehad a great time.
(14:32):
That's high praise.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
But while we were checking in, rhea got a message.
This is the whole celebritything I was talking about
earlier.
So while we were checking in, rgets a message on instagram.
Yes, from a listener shout outto you hi, angie, miss angie.
(14:56):
Shout out to you that said ohmy god, I just saw you checking
into the grand hyatt hotel.
Um, apparently she's a teacherand she said that she was there
with her husband celebrating heranniversary.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
I think so yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
And that she booked her stay there on points and
from what she learned from you.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, I was like oh my God, this is first of all.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
And that's pretty effing awesome.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, we like.
First of all, I was so in shockbecause the beginning of the
message was like I just saw youchecking in at the Grand Hyatt,
Scottsdale, and I was like I waslike what?
I was like that's neverhappened to me before in my life
.
And then the rest of themessage was just so kind and I
was like oh my God.
I was like wait, why didn't yousay hi?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Very nice yes.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
And they were like on their way out, their Uber was
there or something any of you inreal life Like.
But I just was like this hasnever happened to me before and
I was like this is so funny.
And then I like texted my momand my sister and I was like
(15:59):
this is like the best thing I'veever read, like I love this,
and so, oh, and I was like I'mnever gonna shut up about this.
And so then they were justjoking the whole weekend about.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, I had to like wipe the sweat from her forehead
.
I had to stand her down whenshe was at a massager feet when
she was tired like I had oh god,none of that is true but I had
to treat her like a celebrity.
Oh please, even when my familygot there, I said hey, do me a
favor, text, ray, and tell himthat you're here because of what
(16:32):
you learned on our broadcast.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Oh my God, yeah, we were having a.
It was pretty funny.
But hello, Angie.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I hope that you had an amazing time on your trip and
I hope the hotel did notdisappoint Hopefully, I mean.
I think us going there backover and over again, I feel like
, is proof that it's a it's areally good property.
So yeah and yeah.
So we oh, I did want to talkone more thing.
So I was able to gift club.
(17:04):
Oh, this, I'm sorry, this wasanother issue.
Actually, I tried to gift clubaccess awards to the other two
rooms that were booked forDwayne's family so that they
could access the club and getthe breakfast and all that.
But when I tried to do itthrough Hyatt chat it wouldn't
work.
So when I mentioned that atcheck in, after we already had
all these other issues with ournames being linked and they
(17:26):
couldn't unlink him, it was sostrange.
I was like I also tried toapply these club awards but like
, but they told me I couldn't.
And she was like wait, that'sweird.
Of course you can.
She's like I'll just apply itfor you to the room.
So they did get club access forthe day that they were there.
I don't think they used ourclub access awards, so we still
(17:48):
have them.
I find them hard to use, quitehonestly, because when you have
status, you get it anyway.
So, anyways, we were able to usethe club.
It was really great, actually,because everyone saved a ton of
money and it included thebreakfast.
And when we were there in March, february, march the breakfast
(18:09):
for globalists was in the club.
But now and I don't know ifthis is forever or what but now
it's not in the club.
But now and I don't know ifthis is forever or what, but now
it's not in the club.
The club doesn't open until 11.
And you have breakfast in theMesa Central, which is like the
regular breakfast restaurant.
So you can either do the buffetor order off the menu, your
choice.
But I like that better than aclub breakfast because it gives
(18:32):
you more options.
And I generally like to orderoff a menu because I think it's
better food, because it's likehot and fresh, you know, and
with the club access, all of allof the people with us and all
three of the rooms we had atefor free.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
We had a table for 13 people.
We had so many people thismorning that they had to throw
us in like a differentrestaurant with their table.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
They moved us into a back room, which was funny,
shout out to our server.
Yeah, he was great.
We've had him multiple times.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
We've had him every year.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
we've been there he's great and he's been there for a
long time.
Anyways, I guess that wraps itup.
Everything else we've ever saidabout the property remains the
same.
They have lots of funactivities.
When we were at the poolyesterday there was painting
going on.
You had to.
Some of them you have to signup in advance for, so if you
have a stay coming up, justcheck on the website and make
(19:25):
sure you don't need like areservation.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Um I mean the adult pool all day had a dj playing
music.
Yeah, um, the kid pool had a DJat night from I think it was
like 6 to 9.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Actually yes.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
The lights going on.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Our kids were out on our balcony listening to the
music and apparently it was themusic from K-pop Demon Hunters,
which is a hot thing right now.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Apparently, it's really popular right now.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
I mean it's catchy.
I catch myself jamming to itwhen the kids are watching it.
You've never heard it.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I mean, I hear it every day.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
You don't think it's catchy, though I mean it's okay.
Okay, anyways, enough about thehotel.
It's great.
We'll go back again next year.
We go every year.
One of the top three thingsthat I get asked is around
canceling credit cards, and Iknow that we've talked about
(20:22):
this in a previous episode, butwhen someone asked me the other
day, I tried to go back and findthe episode and I couldn't Like
, based on all the episodetitles, I couldn't find it.
So we are going to title thisepisode something along the
lines of canceling credit cardsand we're going to talk about
kind of how, how we thinkthrough, or how I think through,
the process, because I thinkthere's just like everything in
(20:45):
this hobby, there's just a lotof nuance and like various
strategies that go intocanceling cards.
So, and I think, okay, let meask you this If I were like you
need to cancel this credit card,what do you do?
You feel a certain way aboutthat.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Nothing at all.
I okay, Well, that that didn'tlead me to where I wanted to go,
but you told me to cancel acard, I'm going to cancel it and
not think twice about it.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I think people get stuck on this because they don't
want to do the wrong thing andthey're not sure if it makes
sense to cancel and they don'twant to make the bank mad.
That's like what I think.
Why I think it's a difficultdecision, right?
They're like I don.
Why I think it's a difficultdecision, right?
They're like I don't want topiss off the bank and I don't
(21:36):
want them to be upset with me,right For canceling a card.
So, okay, these are the thingsI think through when I think
okay, am I going to?
Does it make sense to keep thiscard or cancel it?
Number one it has to be open fora year, no matter what.
Sometimes I see people post inFacebook groups where they're
(21:57):
like okay, open this card 10days ago.
And I'm like having anxietyabout it, like, should I just
cancel it?
Absolutely freaking, not, noway.
You've.
You've committed keep it openfor a year.
Okay, you, at this point,you're already gonna be charging
annual fee If there is one likeit for a year.
Okay, you, at this point,you're already gonna be charging
annual fee if there is one likeit.
Like, let it go, it doesn'tmatter.
So, always, always, always,keep it open for at least a year
(22:19):
and because we track all of ourcards in the travel freely app,
it alerts me when the one yearmark is coming up.
So when I go in there to lookit'll be, I think it's like
reddish colored if there's anannual fee coming up in the next
, like 45 days or so and that'swhen I know, okay, the
anniversary of this card iscoming up and that's when I can
(22:41):
figure out like am I going tokeep it?
Am I going to cancel it?
Am I going to downgrade itmaybe?
So number one has it been openfor at least a year?
If the answer is yes, then it'slike okay, is there an annual
fee?
If there's no annual fee, I'mprobably going to leave it open,
(23:05):
unless keeping it open ispreventing me from getting
another card or similar card.
So, like the Chase Inc cards,for example, a lot of the a lot
of people get denied now thatthey've cracked down because you
have too many business cardsopen.
So I'm probably going to closeout my Chase Inks as they hit
the year mark for the most part.
(23:27):
The Chase Inc cash is probablythe biggest exception because I
can earn 5x at office supplystores on that card.
So I've had my chasing cashopen for more than a year at
this point, almost two, okay.
So number one has it been morethan a year?
Number two is there an annualfee?
Okay, if there is an annual fee, then it's like okay, what is
(23:51):
the annual fee?
And am I using the benefits?
So for, like a co branded card,meaning like an airline card or
a hotel card?
Most of those not all, but mostof those, especially the hotel
cards are around like 95 to $99annual fee every year and a lot
(24:12):
of those hotel cardsspecifically come with an annual
free night certificate.
So we have the IHG Premier cardor I do and I also have the
World of Hyatt personal card.
Both of those come with a freenight certificate every year.
I've had the IHG card open fortwo years now and the World of
Hyatt for almost one.
(24:32):
I've used my IHG free nightcertificate every year and I
will absolutely use my Hyatt oneand I know exactly where we're
going to use it next year.
So those cards, even thoughthey have an annual fee, those
are worth it to me because thebenefit that we're getting is
always more than the annual fee.
Right, like we use our IHG cardat or free night certificate.
(24:59):
I mean, when we went toYosemite I think that room was
like 200 bucks.
We use the free nightcertificate plus like 11,000 IHG
points or something like that.
So I think that's well.
That's well over the $95 annualfee that we pay for it.
So we're coming on ahead there.
Same with the Hyatt.
Like it's a category onethrough four.
(25:19):
I'm going to use it at acategory four hotel if I can and
for sure earn back the.
You know the.
I think it's $95 annual fee.
So if there is an annual feeand you're not using the
benefits to cover it, and thatcan be for, like the higher
(25:40):
cards, right, like the AmexBusiness Platinum, for example.
I have two right now.
My one year anniversary on thefirst one just hit and I'm going
to cancel it.
I just need to make sure I'musing up as many credits as I
can for the second half of theyear and then I'm going to be
canceling the card because wedon't need to and I struggle to
(26:02):
use the benefits, especially nowthat they have kind of changed
them.
I struggled to use the benefitsfor that.
So that's when we're going toclose.
That's when we're going toclose Another card I just closed
for you is the United Businesscard, and I closed that because
it's a Chase card and it had a$99 annual fee.
(26:24):
And I also have this card, sowe don't both need to have one.
Having a United card gives youaccess to more award
availability, so it's importantthat one of us has a card, but
we don't both need to have acard.
We don't fly United very often.
We just got it because it wasan elevated bonus and it was a
(26:44):
business card.
So what are your thoughts onany of this so far?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Like I said, you're going to be doing most of the
talking because you're theaccountant, slash travel agent,
slash El Jefa.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
El Jefa.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
The boss.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
That sounds attractive, okay, so that's kind
of how I think through theannual fee or I'm sorry, not the
annual fee the decision ofwhether or not to close it.
So has it been open a year,more than a year?
Is there an annual fee?
You know, if no, I'm going tokeep it open, unless it's
preventing me from gettinganother card, and in that case
(27:24):
I'm going to close it.
And then, if there is an annualfee, am I using the benefits?
If no, I'm going to close it,and that's that's really it.
That's how I think through it.
I think there are some otheroptions if you don't want to
cancel the card, and that isdowngrading cards, and I think
this is kind of overlooked alittle bit.
But there are A lot of personalcards that have annual fees
(27:48):
that can be downgraded to cardsthat have no annual fee, and
there are some business cardsyou can do that with as well.
An example of a business cardwould be like I could downgrade
my Amex Platinum to an Amex BlueBusiness Plus.
Maybe I'll do that.
There's no annual fee.
I already have a Blue BusinessPlus, so I don't know.
(28:09):
I guess I can think throughthat, but my goal is to get rid
of that annual fee because Idon't want to pay it.
On that specific card, wedowngraded your Chase Sapphire
Preferred a few months ago to aChase Freedom Flex that also has
no annual fee and allows youactually to earn 5X on rotating
bonus categories Every quarterthey change on rotating bonus
(28:33):
categories, every quarter theychange.
So I think, think, thinkingthrough, like, can I downgrade
this card and if so, what wouldI downgrade to?
Again, there are a lot ofbusiness cards where you can't
eat.
There's no downgrade option.
But there are some personalcards I find generally have a
more.
There's there's more optionsavailable for downgrading.
So if you have a specific cardthat you're wondering about, I
(28:54):
would just Google it.
Just Google, like what can Idowngrade my blah blah blah card
to and see what the options are.
You could also ask chat GPT andsee what it says, but you got
to take what chat GPT tells you,or even Google, with a grain of
salt.
So one of the benefits ofdowngrading versus canceling is
(29:16):
that you are going to keep yourtotal available credit amount
the same.
So one of the pieces that goesinto what makes up your credit
score is your credit utilizationratio and that is basically a
ratio of how much credit carddebt do you have, and when I say
(29:37):
debt, I mean like any kind ofbalance, so it doesn't have to
be true credit card debt.
But it could be like oh, I havea $2,000 balance from last
month's expenses that I haven'tpaid yet.
Okay, that is the first pieceof your of the ratio, and then
the second piece is the totalamount of available credit you
have.
So, across all the credit cardsthat you have, right, what are
(30:00):
all the credit limits?
You would add that up andthat's your total amount of
available credit.
So if you had three credit cardsand they had $30,000 limits on
each, your total availablecredit is $90,000.
And then if your balance islet's, for easy math, let's just
say it's $9,000.
So you're using 9,000 of 90,your utilization ratio is 10%.
(30:25):
Okay, the lower that ratiogenerally is the better, and a
way to keep the ratio low is tomake sure that you're keeping
your available credit high.
So that's one thing to thinkabout when you are canceling a
credit card is is there adowngrade option that would give
(30:45):
me no annual fee but wouldstill keep my total amount of
available credit the same?
Because if you lower youravailable credit, then your
credit utilization percentagegoes up.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
So that is something to think about.
So if you can downgrade, Ithink that's maybe a better
option.
But I also think, like it'sokay to cancel cards.
I have canceled three cards inthe last month to cancel cards.
I have canceled three cards inthe last month.
One of them is the UnitedBusiness for you.
I'm going to cancel my AmexBusiness Platinum one of them or
downgrade it.
(31:19):
And then the other one was aBarclays AA card that you had
that you just got a little overa year ago, so canceled all
those and your credit has stayedthe same.
It's fine.
The credit utilization ratio isa small percentage I want to
say 10-ish percent of your totalcredit score, so it's not going
(31:40):
to have a huge effect.
But if you cancel six cards ina month, like then, it is going
to have a big effect.
You know what I mean.
That's the other piece to keepin mind.
Okay, I do think there's onemore piece that goes into
keeping a card, and we kind oftouched on this when we said the
benefits.
But like, for example, rightnow you and I each have the
(32:01):
Chase Sapphire reserve card.
The annual fees on those areare $800 each, so that's $1,600
are like there's some creditsand whatever that offset some of
that.
But we need a card that cantransfer Chase Ultimate Rewards
to travel partners, and that isone of them.
(32:21):
So that's one reason to keep it.
We also live in a our homeairport is Phoenix, which has a
Chase Sapphire lounge, and byeach of us holding that card we
can each get in ourselves plustwo guests, which means we can
take the into all the kids withus when we travel into that
(32:41):
lounge, which will save us somemoney.
We'll have to see over the nextyear how, like how often, we're
actually able to utilize thatas a family, because that will
factor into whether we keep itas the reserve after the year
markets or if we downgrade it toa preferred, for example.
I also think there's one otherthing to mention, and that is if
(33:05):
a credit card is your oldestcredit card, you should never,
ever, close that.
Hopefully it doesn't have anannual fee.
If it does, see if you candowngrade it.
But you never want to closeyour oldest credit card, because
that is what determines thelength of your credit history,
or at least that's part of it,and length of credit history is
(33:25):
another factor that goes intodetermining your credit score
and the longer your credithistory generally, the
determining your credit scoreand the longer your credit
history generally, the betteryour credit score.
Duane is just staring at me,like again.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
That's why I said do you need me on this podcast?
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I wanted you to talk about our stay at the grand
hyatt, for sure, okay.
So I'm gonna recap.
Before canceling a credit card,these are what.
This is what you want to askyourself.
Number one has it been open atleast a year, okay?
Number two is there an annualfee?
If the answer is yes, is theannual fee worth it and am I
(34:05):
using the benefits every yearwithout, like you know, jumping
through hoops?
You know what I mean with thecoupon books, right?
Number three, is having thiscard open keeping me from
getting another one or a bettersign up bonus?
Number four will closing thishurt my credit utilization or
(34:25):
length of credit history?
And then, number five is therea downgrade path for this card?
So, answer all those questionsand then decide.
You know what's going to bebest for you and your situation.
That's the really tricky partabout credit cards is everyone's
situation is so different andno one can, can definitively say
(34:46):
like, yes, you should cancelthis or not, because every
scenario is a little bitdifferent.
So I think deciding whether tokeep, downgrade or cancel it's,
you know, like we've talkedabout.
It's not just about the annualfee.
There's a whole like overallpoint strategy that goes along
with that.
I think.
(35:07):
Take a few minutes to runthrough these questions and you
know with your own cards and youmight be surprised which ones
are worth keeping and which onesare not.
If you are looking foradditional support around any of
this, or maybe you know what todo with the points you already
have or the cards you have oranything like that.
I do have fully live now creditcard um consultations.
(35:31):
They are not free, they arepaid consultations, but you get
a full hour with me and we cango through whatever it is you
want to go go through Um.
My original intention was tohelp someone like okay, you have
you know these points withthese issuers.
Like let's book a trip when doyou want to go?
Like that was my initial plan,but really it can be whatever
(35:54):
you are wanting or needing helpwith.
Again, it is not free, it is apaid consultation, but you get a
pre-questionnaire from me tofill out so we can spend the
entire hour like actually kindof walking through and solving
whatever the problem is andwherever you want to go.
And then you also get a followup with like clear next steps,
(36:16):
like including like videos oflike this is how you transfer
your points and this is howyou'll do it, and all that.
I cannot book any travel foryou because I'm not a travel
agent and nor should you want togive me any of your login
information, but we can like Ican literally make it as clear
as possible, so if you're abeginner, that's something I
would recommend if you need helparound that arena, and I don't
(36:40):
know anything else to add.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I just have a question.
So if I'm at 424.
Yeah, and I cancel one of thosecards, it doesn't make, it
doesn't matter, right, itdoesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
324 now right, yeah, so it goes off of the date
opened, and so even if youcancel it, it doesn't matter,
because it was opened and that'swhat counts.
So the only thing that can makea card fall off your 524 status
is time.
It's a good question, thoughall right.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Well, I hope this was helpful to someone out there.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yes, feel free In podcast land.
Feel free to message me onInstagram if you have questions,
I will put a link to.
If you want to sign up for aconsultation, I'll put a link to
that in the show notes and wewill catch you on the next
episode.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yes, Thanks for tuning in Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Have a good one, thank you.
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