I am no expert when it comes to credit cards and all the deals and steals to be had with them. We usually use credit cards in a simple manner. We throw any monthly bills we can on them. Use them for daily purchases and then pay them off in order to earn points/rewards. Our two main cards that we use right now are the Disney Rewards Visa and the United Explorer Mileage Plus card. We use the United Explorer card for all of the bills and use the Disney Rewards card for our daily purchases. That way we are earning rewards on both cards. But I am starting to think that it may be better to just use the United card for everything. With the Disney card, it feels like a lot of activity goes through the card for little return. I am sure this has been compared before, but hard to go through this monster thread.
Would anyone have any suggestions on maybe a better card to use that we can take advantage of rewards that we can use for our Disney vacations? Having been able to use the points earned from the United card to book airline tickets to WDW has been really nice!
Welcome to the thread! I hope you've read the first page of the thread for background info, and understand the acronyms used here.
If I'm understanding you right, you are looking for a card that you can put pretty much all of your spend on and earn better rewards than the Disney card. The good news is, it's pretty easy to use any card and get better rewards than the Disney card. Given that you also hold a United Explorer Mileage Plus card, you seem ok with paying a $95 annual fee, so I'd suggest the CSP for you. Unfortunately, you just missed the all-time high SUB for that card, although there are reports that the 100,000 UR points SUB is available in some Chase bank branches...but you'll have to do the legwork (literally!) to see if that offer exists in-branch in your area. Otherwise, the SUB just decreased to 60,000 points as a public online offer. The requirement is $4K MSR within 90 days of opening. 100,000 URs are worth $1,250; 60,000 URs are worth $750 when travel is booked through the Chase travel portal. And each 1000 UR are worth $10.00 as a statement credit. Please note that Disney is not available through the Chase travel portal.
With the CSP you can transfer URs to United, so you can still utilize United miles for tickets; the CSP earns as well as the United card does for United flights. I would downgrade the Explorer card to a $0 annual fee United Gateway card, unless you're planning on paying for United tickets with the United Explorer card to get the baggage benefits.
A good portion of the thread-members sign up for the cc bonuses and continually switch to new cards for our spending $$s to earn the most back for each $1 spend. Admittedly, that is more work than just getting one card for all spend. The "gold standard" for a one-card-for-all-spend is the Citi Double Cash. It earns 2% cash back on every purchase, and $0 annual fee (but does charge a foreign transaction fee, so don't use it internationally). However, it does not have any good SUBs so it doesn't get much love here.
If Southwest flies from your home airport, the SW credit cards are at an all-time high SUB right now, and it's possible to earn a companion pass with just one card. There are very specific rules to getting the companion pass, so be sure to ask questions before you proceed down that path.
I guess hoping is not much of a plan TBH but I'm willing to be a DP.
