Every few months I look at which cards are in our wallets. I’ll remove cards where I met a spending requirement or if I’ve maxed out a bonus category. I make sure to have a card for each category with a bonus (gas, groceries, restaurants.) It’s easy for me because I know that I get 3X Ultimate Rewards for dining with the Sapphire Reserve and 3X Thank You points on groceries with the Citi Premier.
However, I can’t do that with Sharon’s wallet. For her, I need to put one card on top of the wallet and that’s the one she uses. If the top card is an AMEX, I need to add a Mastercard or Visa in case she shops somewhere that doesn’t take AMEX.
Sure, sometimes she could earn extra points if she used a different card, but I don’t make a big deal out of it. It’s just not worth it for either of us.
However, there are some times when I chuckle about which card she uses for a purchase.
She recently stayed at a Marriott TownePlace Suites property. The room was booked through her account, which has her Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business card on file.
The room was paid for with a free night certificate. The hotel doesn’t charge a resort fee so the only cost for the stay would be the $12 parking fee plus tax.
I figured the hotel would just charge the card on file (Note from Sharon: I even asked they front desk clerk!) but they asked her to swipe a card at check-in. So she took out the card on the top of her wallet, the Hilton Surpass AMEX card.
She’s using this card to meet the $15K requirement for a free night certificate. Regardless of the spending category, we’re getting closer to that goal. It also pays bonus points for restaurants, grocery stores and gas stations so I’m OK with her using it everywhere.
I didn’t expect her to use it to pay for a Marriott hotel stay. 🙂
Of course, nothing happened when she used a Hilton credit card. There were no alarm bells and the Marriott Bonvoy police didn’t take her away (Note from Sharon: Let ’em try. I’m a bad @$$).
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