Rate My 2025 Credit Card Setup With Context

I’ve been looking at my spending habits from 2024 using Credit Karma and created a credit card plan based on my main spending areas. I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether I’m getting the most rewards or if there are better cards available I should check out. My goal is to earn at least 3% back on my top spending categories with as few cards as possible.

Here are my top spending categories in no particular order:

  • Groceries
  • Mortgage Payments
  • Bills & Utilities
  • Dining & Takeout
  • Travel (flights & hotels)
  • Amazon

Here’s my current setup and the reasons for choosing each card:

Card Spending Categories Rewards Annual Fee
Hilton Aspire Dining/Takeout, Flights, Hilton Hotels - 14x Hilton (~8% return)- 7x Dining & Flights (~4% return) $550
Venmo Visa (or RH Gold Card if it becomes available here) Groceries only 3% on top spending category (I’ll make this groceries, Costco counts with this card, and I spend ~$300/month there with exec membership) $0
Amazon Visa Amazon only 5% Amazon $0
Mesa Homeowners (or Bilt when that mortgage option is available) Mortgage, Utilities, Gas 1x Mortgage, 3x Utilities, 2x Gas, 2x Home Improvement $0

Notes: The Hilton Aspire has many perks that help make up for the high annual fee. We plan on sticking with Hilton and taking advantage of those benefits. It also comes with travel and baggage insurance when booking flights.

The Mesa Homeowners card sounds great, but I’m unsure if I can consistently meet the $1,000 monthly spending to earn points on the mortgage payments. Some months I might hit it, and on others, I might not reach the $1,000, but at least I’ll still earn points on those purchases. I’m hopeful that the Bilt card for mortgages comes out this year.

I also want to get the RH Gold card as a 3% catch-all since I have the gold membership and want to make the most of the other benefits, but it’s still not available in my state for some reason.

Does the $1,000 monthly spend on Mesa include the mortgage itself

Willoughby said:
Does the $1,000 monthly spend on Mesa include the mortgage itself

No, unfortunately it doesn’t

Fitz said:

Willoughby said:
Does the $1,000 monthly spend on Mesa include the mortgage itself

No, unfortunately it doesn’t

Hmm, the more I read, the less impressed I am. That’s a bummer. I want to take advantage of my nearly $4K a month mortgage.

@Willoughby
Don’t just watch BILT. Just sign up. It works for most people’s mortgages. Worst case is they take back your points if you haven’t cashed them out yet and close your account, but you wouldn’t have earned those points with any other card anyway. I haven’t heard of that happening to anyone.

Wells Fargo already said they won’t renew the contract, so that card might not be around in a year or two. Take the free money.

@BawsNicklaus
That contract runs until 2029 unless Wells Fargo can find a way to get out of it.

Two of your top categories are groceries and dining. You get 7x for dining on the Aspire, but those points might not be worth much after the recent changes. Plus, you don’t get extra points for groceries.

I’d suggest switching from the Aspire to a Hilton Surpass card and just use that card at Hilton hotels. In the USA, there’s not much difference between gold and diamond status. If you’re loyal, the $200 in statement credits makes the Surpass a -$50 effective annual fee.

With those savings, I’d get an AMEX Gold card to earn 4x points on dining and groceries that are worth around 2 cents each. If you want to use those points at Hilton, you can transfer them since AMEX is a transfer partner.

AMEX Gold also has travel benefits similar to the Aspire.

About your setup, how do you plan to use travel points? Do transfer partners matter, and if so, which ones do you prefer? Does lounge access matter to you? What’s your income? What do you spend monthly in different categories?

The Mesa card sounds interesting, but that $1,000 monthly requirement is tricky unless their extra points options match your normal spending. I wonder if there will be limits on earning points for mortgage payments.

@Vivian
Points are worth 1 cpp through their travel portal, and less if used for anything else, so it might not be as good as it first looks.

For solid suggestions, you need to rank those categories in order of importance, ideally with dollar amounts.

Without more info, I’d say Smartly.