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5 Things You Should Know Before Getting the Chase Sapphire Reserve

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The media has been abuzz since the Chase Sapphire Reserve was first announced in 2016, and with the recent annual fee increase, many people are wondering if this card is still the premium card it once was. If you haven’t yet taken the plunge, there are a few things that you might want to know before applying. Here’s a complete rundown of one of my favorite credit cards: the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Yes, there’s an annual fee, but…

…it comes with a ton of perks, which I’ll talk about in detail later. In fact, the Chase Sapphire Reserve annual fee has been the talk of the town over the past few weeks because Chase just upped the annual fee from $450 to $550. Honestly, this change hasn’t been as catastrophic as some folks projected it to be; the extra hundred bucks is peanuts compared to the benefits and entitlements that Chase already had. Chase has added partner benefits to offset the bump, and they’ll be more useful for some people than others. Either way, if you take advantage of your card benefits, you’ll easily end up saving more than $550 per year.
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What’s in Grant’s (iPhone) Wallet?

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great Super Bowl weekend.  I was down in Orange County enjoying the warm weather, but now I am back up in the chilly Bay Area.  I’ve been wanting to write about this topic for a while, but my final motivation was reading 2 Frequent Miler articles: What’s in Nick’s wallet? and What’s in Greg’s wallet?  The first thing you should know about me (if you already didn’t know) is that I am a millennial and I live in the Bay Area, so I can go weeks without using cash.  For that reason, my wallet is built into my iPhone XS case.  I use the Urban Armor Gear (UAG) iPhone Case ($30 on Amazon) that has room for 4 cards: my drivers license and 3 credit cards.  Which 3 credit cards do I carry with me on a daily basis and which credit cards do I have in my ApplePay Wallet?

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Where is the No Annual Fee Hyatt Credit Card?

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Good afternoon everyone.  In the conclusion of my recent post, I stated that if I had to keep only 5 credit cards with annual fees, I would sadly have to close my hotel credit cards.  After I wrote that post, I decided that I would rather downgrade my hotel credit cards to no annual fee credit cards like the Marriott Bold or American Express Hilton.  I was curious if every hotel chain had a no annual fee credit card, so I decided to create this table showing the hotel brand, no annual fee credit card and the annual fee credit card.  Some hotel brands have several credit cards with different annual fees, so I chose to show credit cards with annual fees in the $75-$95 range.  A few things stood out to me… Hyatt was missing a no annual fee credit card.

Hotel Brand No Annual Fee Credit Card Annual Fee Credit Card
Choice Barclays Choice Privileges Visa Signature Credit Card N/A
Hilton American Express Hilton Honors Credit Card American Express Hilton Honors Surpass Credit Card ($95)
Hyatt N/A Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card ($95)
IHG Chase IHG Rewards Club Traveler Credit Card Chase IHG Rewards Club Premier Credit Card ($89)
Marriott Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bold Credit Card Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card ($95)
Radisson US Bank Radisson Rewards Visa Credit Card US Bank Radisson Rewards Premier Visa Signature Credit Card ($75)
Wyndham Barclays Wyndham Rewards Visa Credit Card Barclays Wyndham Rewards Visa Credit Card ($75)

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If I Could Only Keep 5 Credit Cards with Annual Fees…

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  A few weeks ago, I wrote these 2 posts:

In those posts, I listed all the credit cards that Laura and I have.  I also justified why I paid $4,588 in credit card annual fees in 2019.  Since that post, there have been a few credit card changes (JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card lost the Visa Infinite Discount Air Benefit and the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card added Lyft and DoorDash benefits).  A few readers commented and other bloggers linked to the top post and shared which credit cards they keep every year.  As part of my 2020 travel resolutions, I said I wanted to reduce the amount I paid in credit card annual fees.  In this theoretical post, here are the 5 credit cards with annual fees that I would keep…

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How to Spend a Long Weekend in Carmel / Monterey, CA

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Good morning everyone.  This past weekend, Laura and I did a mini road trip from the San Francisco Bay Area down to Carmel / Monterey.  If you fly into San Francisco (SFO), Oakland (OAK), or San Jose (SJC), it is a 1.5 to 2 hour drive, depending on traffic.  Alternatively, you can fly directly into Monterey (MRY), but that airport has a smaller route network and more expensive flights.  I have been visiting Carmel / Monterey for 25+ years.  Every year for Thanksgiving week, my extended family would drive up from Southern California to Carmel / Monterey and I would spend time with my grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.  As far as I can tell, not much has changed during that time in Carmel / Monterey.  Here are some of my favorite places to stay, eat and visit.

Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa on Del Monte Golf Course

Laura and I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel twice in the last 3 years.  This hotel is a category 4 Hyatt which costs 15,000 World of Hyatt Points or you can use your Free Night Certificate from the Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card.  As of January 2020, there is minor construction on the main entrance road and outside the hotel lobby.  They are also refreshing the hotel rooms and we stayed in one of the refreshed rooms.  The hotel has plenty of parking (all free) and no resort charges.  It is very easy to get to various parts of Carmel / Monterey within a 10-15 minute drive.  I highly recommend this hotel and plan to come back next year after the construction and room renovations are complete.

a building with a fountain in front of it

Image source: https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/california/hyatt-regency-monterey-hotel-and-spa-on-del-monte-golf-course/mrydm

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